HomeMy WebLinkAbout2019-05-14Meridian City Council Workshop May 14, 2019.
A Meeting of the Meridian City Council was called to order at 3:00 p.m., Tuesday, May
14, 2019, by Mayor Tammy de Weerd.
Members Present: Tammy de Weerd, Joe Borton, Luke Cavener, Ty Palmer, Genesis
Milam, Anne Little Roberts and Treg Bernt.
Also present: Chris Johnson, Bill Nary, Warren Stewart, Jeff Lavey, Joe Bongiorno, Steve
Siddoway, Todd Lavoie, Dale Bolthouse and Dean Willis.
Item 1: Roll-call Attendance:
Roll call.
X__ Anne Little Roberts X _ _Joe Borton
X___ Ty Palmer X__ Treg Bernt
__X____Genesis Milam __X___Lucas Cavener
__X__ Mayor Tammy de Weerd
De Weerd: Okay. I will go ahead and call our City Council meeting to order. For the
record it is Tuesday, May 14th. It's 3:00 o'clock. This is the workshop for City Council.
We will start with roll call attendance, Mr. Clerk.
Item 2: Pledge of Allegiance
De Weerd: Item No. 2 is the Pledge of Allegiance. If you will all rise in the pledge to our
flag.
(Pledge of Allegiance recited.)
Item 3: Adoption of Agenda
De Weerd: Item 3 is adoption of the agenda.
Borton: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Borton.
Borton: We are going to make one change on the Consent Agenda. We are going to pull
Item I and move that to eight. Make that 8-A I guess. That's the only change. So, I would
move we adopt the agenda as amended.
Cavener: Second.
De Weerd: Have a motion and a second to approve the agenda as amended. All those
in favor say aye. All ayes. Motion carried.
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MOTION CARRIED: ALL AYES.
Item 4: Announcements
De Weerd: Item No. 4 is announcements. We do have Fill The Boot, which is Thursday,
the 16th. It's from 9:00 to 4:00 and our firefighters will be at the intersection of Locust
Grove and Fairview. Saturday, the 18th, is National Kids To Parks Day and so, please,
encourage those that you know to go out and experience our parks . VRT has an open
house on public transportation Monday, the 20th, from 4:00 to 6:00 in conference rooms
A and B here at City Hall and invite you to come, give your input to them. And I see that
our parks director gave you a lot of dates that are in handouts in front of you and so,
please, take a look at that information. I got it too late to read into the record. So, is there
any other announcements that all of you know of?
Item 5: Proclamation
A. Neurofibromatosis (NF) Awareness Month
De Weerd: Okay. Hearing none, I do have a proclamation that I will move to the podium
and ask that Shannon McNall and her group, please, join me. Nice looking group. Okay.
So, we are here to proclaim Neurofibromatosis -- Nerofibromatosis Awareness Month.
Whereas, neurofibromatosis, NF, causes tumors to grow on nerves throughout the body,
which can affect development of the brain, cardiovascular system, bones and skin, and
affects all populations equally regardless of race, ethnicity, or gender and whereas the
Children's Tumor Foundation leads efforts to promote and financially sponsor world class
medical research aimed at finding effective treatments and ultimately a cure for NF and
whereas as patient and family support is provided by the Children's Tumor Foundation
through its information resources, youth programs, and local chapter activities and
whereas much remains to be done in raising public awareness to NF to help promote
early diagnosis, proper management and treatment, prevention of complications and
support for research and whereas the Children's Tumor Foundation is observing May
17th, 2019, as World Neurofibromatosis Awareness Day to educate the public about this
rare genetic disorder, that is why, I, Mayor Tammy de Weerd, proclaim the month of May
2019 to be Neurofibromatosis Day, NF Awareness Month, in the City of Meridian and urge
all of our community members to become informed and involved in the fight, so we can
manage -- imagine a world without NF. And I will turn this over to Shannon to -- to give a
few remarks and to present this proclamation.
McNall: Hi. Thank you everybody for listening to Mayor -- Mayor Tammy. Thank you for
having us here today. As she said, neurofibromatosis affects one in 3,000 births. To put
that a little bit in perspective, it's more common than Huntington's, Duchenne's --
Duchenne's muscular dystrophy and cystic fibrosis combined. So, it's actually pretty
common. The thing is that there is no cure and there is no effective treatment as of yet.
So, we have two of our little NF heroes with us. We have Savannah and my son Carson.
When my son Carson was diagnosed with NF I can't tell you as a parent what it means
to hear that there is no treatment, there is no cure. There is nothing, basically, you can
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May 14, 2019
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do, so what our family went and reached out and did is we started volunteering for the
Children's Tumor Foundation and we started about ten years ago and in those ten years
-- I mean it's just -- I'm just as ecstatic to say this -- we have had proclamations all over
the country. Meridian -- this is the fourth year that you have done this, so thank you so
much. We have buildings that shine a light for NF at 8th and Main and the US Bank
Building will be doing that this weekend and we also have countless researchers for the
Children's Tumor Foundation that I'm happy to say for the first time the FDA is about to
approve the first effective treatment ever for NF and -- thank you. It's super exciting and
as a parent -- when we first started volunteering I think my hope was that they would find
a cure for NF in our future generations and I think because of what CTF is doing and the
awareness that's being raised they are going to find a cure in their generation. So , thank
you guys very much for having us.
Item 6: Consent Agenda
A. Oaks North Subdivision No. 2 Sanitary Sewer & Water Main
Easement #A
B. Oaks North Subdivision No. 2 Sanitary Sewer & Water Main
Easement #B
C. Oaks North Subdivision No. 2 Sanitary Sewer & Water Main
Easement #C
D. Oaks North Subdivision No. 2 Sanitary Sewer & Water Main
Easement #D
E. Development Agreement for Smith Rezone (H-2018-0097) with
Team Construction (Owner) and Scott Smith (Developer)
located at 1321 & 1323 N. Main St.
F. Temporary License Agreement between Retail West and the City
of Meridian for Placement of a Sign for Public Works Week
G. Approval of Award of RFQ and agreement to Eurofins Eaton
Analytical, LLC for “Annual Non-Micro Water Testing” for a total
5-year agreement Not-To -Exceed amount of $247,333.30.
H. Approval Construction Contract to Idaho Materials &
Construction for the “Eagle Road Repairs” project for a Not-To -
Exceed amount of $69,983.00.
J. AP Invoices for Payment 05/08/19 - $1,051,154.13
K. AP Invoices for Payment 05/15/19 - $729,122.41
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De Weerd: Thank you. Okay. Item 6 is our Consent Agenda.
Borton: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Borton.
Borton: I move that we approve the amended Consent Agenda and for the Major to sign
and Clerk to attest.
Cavener: Second.
De Weerd: I have a motion and a second to approve the Consent Agenda. If there is no
discussion, Mr. Clerk, will you call roll.
Roll call: Borton, yea; Milam, yea; Cavener, yea; Palmer, yea; Little Roberts, yea; Bernt,
yea.
De Weerd: All ayes. Motion carried.
MOTION CARRIED: ALL AYES.
Item 7: Community Items/Presentations
A. Ada County Assessor Annual Assessment Briefing
De Weerd: Item 7 is a community presentation by our Ada County Assessor giving us
our annual assessment briefing. You don't look like Mr. McQuade.
Smith: There is going to be some numbers coming to you so you can kind of read
along --
De Weerd: Oh, thank you.
Smith: -- as I present.
De Weerd: -- instead of trying to write them quickly.
Smith: Yeah. So, you will have, basically, all the numbers that we have so far. My name
is Brad Smith. I'm the chief deputy for the Ada County Assessor's Office. Unfortunately,
Bob McQuade was not able to be here as he is -- he does approximately 20 of these and
this was one of the conflicting ones he has, so I get the treat of coming out here to
Meridian, which I don't get out too much, since I live in Boise, but --
De Weerd: Well, thank you for coming west.
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Smith: You're welcome. So, it's shocking to see these numbers and I'm sure you all live
around it every day, so it's probably not going to be as shocking to you, but some of the
numbers -- just really large increases in residential and I will -- I will go ahead and get
started. This presentation will only take about seven minutes and, then, at the end you
will have an opportunity to ask any questions that you would like. So, we will be sending
out assessment notices here in the next couple weeks , right about Memorial Day
weekend, and we will be sending out to Meridian residents about 45,000 and in total we
will be sending out about 200,000 and , to say the least, we have some very large
increases that are going to be happening across the county. So, our office will be
inundated with phone calls, because last year was a pretty big year, too, and this year is
going to surpass that. One of the common questions that come up is how close are our
property values, our assessments to actual property sell prices and that's a really good
question and there is a little misnomer to it that we might be ten, 20, 30 percent on the
conservative side. It just so happens the Idaho State Tax Commission, they review our
ratios and they -- last year they took a look as 13,000 properties that sold across Ada
county and they compare that to the assessments and as you can see on this slide last
year on the residential improved we were 97 percent, which means we were about three
percent light. In 2018 you can see we are starting to lose a little ground. As the market's
increasing as fast as it is, it's kind of difficult to keep up with what people are paying for
properties. Commercial, we were at 94 last year and this year we were at 95. It hasn't
increased as much, so we are able to kind of gain some ground there and one thing to
keep in mind, our lean date is January 1st, so when you get your assessment notice and
you open it up and you look at that property value , keep in mind that's from almost six
months ago. In this market that's -- that's a pretty long time frame. As far as total market
value, we are about 14 and a half billion dollars after we remove the homeowners
exemption and other exemptions and, then, we add back in operating property that the
Tax Commission does, it ends up being about 11.8 billion and if you look at last year, you
were about 8.4 billion dollars. So, that's a huge -- I think almost a 40 percent increase.
So, that has potential to be a lot of increase, kind off the charts for what we are used to.
Focusing just on residential value -- valuations, last year 9.1 billion. This year 11.2. That's
a 23 percent increase, which, again, I mean these are just -- these numbers are kind of
off the charts. Market trends. The median assessed value change in Meridian is about
14.6 percent and you're probably asking why is that different than the 23 percent. The 23
percent includes the market appreciation, plus all the new constructions -- all the new
residential homes that are going on the market. So, you could say about eight percent of
that is attributed to the new homes. Market drivers that we are seeing, you know, in
migration -- I mean you look at the license plates, all the different -- just the whole variety
of license plates that we see around town and I think we did some research last year and
about half the people are coming in just from the surrounding states around us . So, it's
kind of interesting to see where people are coming from. And land -- just the same as the
last market increase we had, you know, years ago, the land really drove that and also
drove it back down, too. And, again, this is the land that's driving it. So, we saw land
values going from 30,000 over the years up to 100,000, 120,000. So, your normal lots
surges -- the land has really increased a lot there. As fa r as commercial and personal
property, commercial, like I stated earlier, hasn't been increasing quite as much as
residential. We are seeing about 14 percent -- 14.3 percent increase and on the personal
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property, which depreciates over the years, based on schedules that we get from the Tax
Commission, it's increasing at 1.5 percent. Normally that would be going down, but the
new personal property coming on the roll helps keep that kind of moving in the right
direction and overall about 13.5 percent and normally this would be pretty good, but
compared to residential it seems kind of light. Now, the new construction roll, this is what
-- if you are involved with the budgets, which I know you are , this is the factor that you
can increase budgets with. As you can see residential -- manufacturer almost 42 percent,
commercial 62, but what's really crazy is new subdivisions and change of use. I mean
more than doubled and overall the new construction role is 63 percent and those numbers
-- again, these are numbers we don't typically see.
Borton: Madam Mayor? Sorry.
De Weerd: Mr. Cavener.
Cavener: Mr. Smith, I don't mean to interrupt your presentation.
Smith: Sure.
Cavener: Can you help me -- what do you mean by new subdivisions and change of use?
Can you give us an example as to what that refers to?
Smith: Sure. So, it's going to -- there is going to be two scenarios. The new construction
roll, basically, it's broken in different categories and so a new subdivision is going to be
coming from -- we will say like 20 acre parcel going in. So, what we do is we take the
value of what that raw parcel was prior to and we compare it and that's a subdivision and,
then, the change of use is where you might have some -- a residential zoned property
and it gets changed to we will say a commercial, so it has some kind of change of use is
what we call that and, again, that goes into the new construction roll. So, there is -- and
it gets much more complicated a process for like ten years and it -- I don't want to take
you down in the -- in the weeds. Urban renewal, as you are knowledgeable with Meridian,
downtown urban renewal has been around for a while . It is seeing about 30 percent
increase on the increment side. Ten Mile, which has a lot of growth potential, is starting
to see some pretty good sized buildings out there, 45 percent increase. So, I mean urban
renewal districts will be pretty pleased with their added revenue that will be coming in
from there. Overall tax burden. This one's always kind of fascinating. I don't have all the
answers on this one of exactly why this -- this happens. I have some answers, but
probably not as much as you would like to see. So, as it's -- the burden -- the tax burden
is shifting. So, you can see residential was at 65 percent and now they are increasing to
68 percent. You know, at times that can be a concern and we always want to know, you
know, what's happening here and commercial is actually going down. I talked to our
statistician and one of the things, because of all the new residential homes that are
coming on, they are actually outpacing the commercial value. So, when you look at it as
far as just total dollars that are going out, they are growing at a faster rate than
commercial. So, I think that's a large percentage of it. Another might be the -- and it's
more so my opinion -- is the homeowners exemption is capped at 200,000 and I know
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there is talks about getting this indexed and getting it moved up, because 200,000 within
Ada county is not very much compared to the rest of the state. So, it would be nice to
have that increased, but that's capped at 200,000, which keeps -- so, properties over
200,000 you are paying dollar for dollar on top of the taxes, where the people under 200
get the benefit and I feel that plays a part into it additionally. And, overall, I mean that's
-- you have all the -- the numbers on the sheet. So , if any of you have any questions
now's the time.
De Weerd: Thank you, Brad. Council, any questions?
Cavener: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Cavener.
Cavener: Brad, you talked a lot about kind of this -- unprecedented increases. I'm just
curious if you can recall the last time that we saw, you know, valuations go up at such --
by such a high percentage. Something that's happened in your careers. Is it something
that is cyclical? Help me understand.
Smith: So, I have been with Ada county since 1997, so, of course, I was -- you know, saw
the market go up and saw it come down and we were always very fascinated what -- the
criteria that make this happen and, you know, I'm not very good at saying what happens
in the future, but I will say that what I saw back then was kind of scary, you know, as far
as the loans and what banks were doing and stuff and when I look at the market today
we have a lot of people coming in, the ratio of people paying , you know, cash for
properties, there is just a lot more security in the market today and as long as we are the
place to live and we are competitive in the northwest region as far as a very affordable
place to live, even though it seems crazy expensive to people that have lived here a long
time, to people coming outside you got to remember, the se are great deals they are
getting and they are going to -- and they are paying cash and they are selling their homes
for much higher prices and buying -- you know, so they are not leveraged out to where
they were before. So, I mean in my mind we are in a much different market than we were
years ago, but I know my opinion -- that is strictly my opinion and it differs from others I
speak to, but I feel that we are in -- I don't feel it's completely sustainable and I don't really
like these large increases, but I feel it's not -- I don't see the downward trend that we saw
before, I see it possibly leveling off at some point, but what are your thoughts about it?
Cavener: You know, I, from my perspective, I get concerned about, you know, we saw
what happened in 2007, 2008, significant growth in the valley, some municipalities grew
their building departments tremendously and the market dropped out and, then, cities had
to make really hard decisions about employees to lay off . Meridian was in a really unique
point at that juncture and that our model afforded us the ability to scale back without laying
off people. We don't have that luxury anymore and so I continue to see growth . I -- I, like
many, am waiting for that bubble to pop and want us to remain conservative, because I
don't want us as a Council -- I don't ever want to be in a position where we have got to
lay somebody off because the market has dropped out and so relying on experts like you
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about valuations, demand, where we are headed, is so critical. I think for me when we
go into our budget season to have a good understanding about what the demands on our
community are going to be, so we make the best decision.
Smith: That's fair enough. If nobody has -- that was very good. If nobody has any other
questions, I have one other statistic I will throw out there for you that I just got this morning.
Milam: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mrs. Milam.
Milam: I do have a question regarding the homeowners exemption. So, what is the
forecast on that and what is -- what is the process for having that increased and -- and
what -- what have you heard in the rumblings of --
Smith: So, I did hear some rumblings on it a couple of weeks ago and -- that it probably
will not go anywhere the next couple years, so -- the index. It would be nice, but I think
it's probably going to be fixed for a couple more years. So, that's what I'm hearing, but
I'm pretty -- pretty low on that --
Milam: Thank you.
Smith: -- that level, but that I know it did not gain any traction this season. So, I think
that's probably going to be what we are going to see in the future.
De Weerd: Mr. Bernt, did you have a question?
Bernt: No. I mean more -- more or less a comment. It's -- it's truly amazing to see what
happens in these -- in these markets. I mean we are all doing well and most people are
doing well and to see growth is controlled growth, smart growth is good, but during these
good times that businesses go out of business, in my opinion, you know, where people
struggle because when they have money they spend money and -- and it's almost like
monopoly money to a certain degree and so when things go bad and times are tough they
don't have the type of resources to be able to withstand the downturn and so I completely
agree with Council Member Cavener, you know, even though times are good, that's when
we should be even more conservative in spending -- or, excuse me, saving even more,
because it's not always going to be like this. So, in seeing these numbers almost prove
that to a certain degree, because they are -- they are pretty large. So, I appreciate you
taking the time to come and inform us on -- on what's going on in the valley, especially
our city of Meridian.
Smith: You're welcome.
De Weerd: Thank you. Any other questions from Council? Brad, do you have one --
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Smith: Yeah. Just one final point. And our statistician gave this to me this morning,
because Ada county as a whole puts on about -- we have about 13 residential properties
occupied each day as a whole and I was curious, since I was doing this presentation, how
much -- how many of those homes are attributed to Meridian. So, he ran the numbers
and we are talking -- I mean, you know, we got unincorporated 1.3. Boise is 2.4. Eagle
2.2. Garden City .1. Kuna 1.6. Star is .7. So, Meridian gets 5.1. So, as you can see in
Ada county, I mean you are double what any other cities are putting on. So, it's just a lot
of growth out here. So, I mean everything just kind of reflects that, so -- it's growing.
De Weerd: Thanks for reminding us.
Smith: Yeah. Like I said, I don't -- I don't live out here, but we -- you know, we do it --
De Weerd: I'm sorry.
Smith: Sure. Yeah.
De Weerd: Apparently you need to get out more often.
Smith; I was just happy my car made it here, because I don't have AC and I had to drive
out here and so I was just happy to make it out here, so --
De Weerd: Well, we are happy you joined us and thank you for the information . We
appreciate it.
Smith: Thank you for taking the time to listen.
Item 8: Items Moved From the Consent Agenda
I. Meridian Fire Department: The Compliance Engine, Contract
Change
De Weerd: Thank you, Brad. We did have an item that we moved from the Consent
Agenda. The Meridian Fire Department, the compliance engine contract change and I
guess --
Bongiorno: Madam Mayor and City Council, so what we have -- what you have before
you is a contract amendment with Brycer, who runs the compliance engine. Back in 2012
we signed on with -- along with Boise fire -- to utilize the compliance engine, which is a
third-party vendor that the sprinkler companies, fire hood companies that do the hood
suppression systems, the hood cleaning companies are required to report to the
compliance engine when these inspections are completed. When we signed on in 2012
the fee amount that was being charged by Brycer was 15 dollars. We -- we utilize a phone
part of the -- the compliance engine to where Brycer will actually make phone calls to the
people when they have deficiencies or their systems are past due being inspected and
so since that time -- obviously, since 2012 we have grown considerably. Just in the first
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-- I pulled up the data while the previous gentleman was speaking and in the last five
months we are averaging about 160 inspections a month that are being uploaded into the
compliance engine. The compliance engine itself has been a great help for us. Just in
the last three months we have found systems that -- excuse me -- had never been put in
the system and/or have been inspected within five years. So, we had some bad sprinkler
systems out there and we had one particular restaurant just up the street that their hood
had never been cleaned, which as we know, hood cleanings is very important to prevent
fires. So, what has happened in the valley is Eagle fire, Kuna fire, Middleton fire and Star
fire departments have all adopted the compliance engine at a 30 dollar rate for their fee
that the compliance engine is charging and what they are doing with that fee -- and also
Boise fire as well. And what they are doing with that fee is Brycer has a fee sharing
program that they have adopted and presented . They actually started it with Seattle fire
department is where it came from and so part of that fee schedule is the 15 dollars that
Brycer normally collects they would collect. There is a six and a half percent handling
fee, basically, for them to run the program and, then, whatever the balance is they mail a
check to the AHJ, the authority having jurisdiction, which is the Meridian Fire Department
quarterly. So, it's a fee sharing program. So, for Meridian Fire Department, if you average
our 160 inspections that we are doing a month, that if we carried that through the year
that potential income would roughly be about 26,000 dollars. So, this is -- I think Chief
Niemeyer had sent an e-mail to Council and this is kind of our first shot at cost recovery
is what it is and it's a partial cost recovery, it's not a full cost recovery, because if it was a
full cost recovery that fee would be pretty phenomenal and I'm sure the restaurants would
not want to pay that fee. So, this is just a partial cost recovery and, then, also I have
mentioned before that -- and when I took over as the fire marshal part of my goal is to
keep things even in the -- in the valley, because when I took over a lot of the complaints
I was hearing was why don't have to do that in Eagle, why don't have to do that in Boise,
I don't have to do that here. So, as all of the other departments around us have adopted
that 30 dollar fee for our partial cost recovery and to keep things even in the valley, I have
brought this contract amendment to you to have the same fee throughout the valley.
Boise fire just went to city council two months ago and got their approval. We were
shooting for a June 15 date, if I was to get approval from our council, to begin this program
here in Meridian.
De Weerd: Okay. Council, any questions?
Cavener: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Cavener.
Cavener: Joe, is it that -- is it 30 dollars, plus the 6.8 percent or is it 30, minus 15 to
Brycer and, then, minus that six and a half percent?
Bongiorno: Correct. Yeah. So, that's why I said roughly we would be getting like 14
dollars or -- and some change.
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Cavener: Thank you, Joe. So, Madam Mayor, I had requested that we had -- for us to
pull this off. I don't know if we all had a chance to see the memo that got sent out
yesterday morning. I really applaud and appreciate what the department is trying to do
and create some uniformity when it comes to fees, but, you know, we don't -- we don't
charge a lot of fees in the fire department and I think that's a conversation for a later point
in time about if we should have permit fees or not have permit fees, but with this being
the first kind of step in that direction, I want to make sure that we are on board with either
-- again a -- a full cost recovery, a middle cost recovery, no cost recovery and being able
to really demonstrate to our customers what those dollars are paying for. I think that when
other departments come to us with a fee increase , they have got a methodology or a
rationale behind that specific dollar amount and in many cases, again, it could be that we
would actually need to charge less, it may be that we actually may want to charge more.
I struggle with supporting a fee increase that the decision behind that amount is solely
because this is what the other area municipalities are doing. So, I know -- I think we have
got some folks from Finance in the room. I don't know if they want to speak to kind of
how we do other fees and if this is consistent. Where I only got this yesterday morning, I
didn't have a whole lot of time to dive into it that I would like and so I'm not opposed to us
looking at an increase in a fee for the compliance engine, I just want to make sure that at
least for myself that I understand the rationale behind the specific dollar amount.
Bongiorno: So, Madam Mayor and Council Member Cavener, that -- part -- part of that
-- the rationale behind that is to -- because right now I am managing the compliance
engine. Boise fire, obviously, they do and I'm going to refer to them quite a bit, because
they do 9,000 inspections and so they are -- they actually -- they are taking that fee and
they hired somebody. So, they are able to cover the costs of the -- of an FTE to manage
the whole compliance engine program and that person is going to manage the
deficiencies, making phone calls, following up and everything to make sure it's -- it's done.
So, right now I am -- am doing that. It -- I roughly spend about eight hours a week
managing the compliance engine. In 2021 I have a new inspector in the program,
hopefully, to be brought on board and part of that -- I'm going to put it on them, because,
obviously, with the growth that -- and what we have been all sitting in, I -- I have been
very busy and so it makes more sense to use that funding to help that other -- to help pay
for that inspector that we have coming on board.
Cavener: Madam Mayor, maybe for Council -- chief and I had about six and a half minutes
to talk about this before -- before the meeting today and, again, I think it's incredibly
appropriate if the cost to the department from operating this program should be covered
by the fees. I think the big question is does this 14 dollars per permit cover that? Does
it cover it at 20 percent of the chief's time, a hundred percent of the chief's time? We just
don't know. And so I guess I would look for our Finance Department as kind of subject
matter experts to give us some direction about if this is appropriate, if there is -- I just want
to make sure that we can justify our decision more than just this is what the other
municipalities in the area are charging.
Milam: Madam Mayor?
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De Weerd: Mrs. Milam.
Milam: So, Joe, not to put you on the spot here, but you say -- you said -- you were kind
of vague about the amount. To Luke's point, if we were to do this as a total recovery
model, do you have a number?
Bongiorno: Well, at 26,000 it -- yeah. The fee would be like a hundred dollars if we were
to do the full cost recovery and that's -- that's a lot of money for a restaurant to put up.
It's every six months, you know, they have their hood inspected and, then, on top of that
they have to have their fire sprinklers inspected. So, it would be -- be a big hit to our --
the restaurants and stuff that are in the -- and the commercial businesses that are being
inspected, including the City of Meridian.
Cavener: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Cavener.
Cavener: You know, I don't -- if Council wants to move forward that's -- that's fine, but I
guess maybe a recommend -- excuse me -- a recommendation would be is to maybe
continue this or table it for two weeks, allow Finance to work with Fire to come up with
some recommendations for us as a body to look at. Again, whether it's, again, a full cost
recovery, a partial cost, and it very well could be that in order to do a full cost recovery we
would need to charge X amount, but we as a body could say, well, we want to charge less
and -- and offset those costs. I think just being able to be confident in the decision we
make is important at least to me and, again, I don't know -- I see Keith is here, I thought
I saw Todd. I don't know if they are -- oh, he is hiding. If there is any information that you
want to share. I don't know if you have had an opportunity to hear about this a little bit.
If there is any other feedback you can provide to us before we make a decision would be
appreciated.
Bongiorno: While he's walking up, Madam Mayor and City Council -- and just so you
know, the -- the Fire Department, we don't -- we don't typically charge fees for anything.
We have one fee that we charge for and that's for home daycare inspections and t hat's
25 dollars and that's set by the state. So, that one particular fee we don't -- we don't have
any control over. That's just the one fee that we do charge for. Obviously, there are other
things out there that we can charge fees for. I have a whole Section 100 of the Idaho fire
code that allows for permits and so part of the problem with charging fees for that is you
have to be able to manage it and I don't think myself and the two inspectors that I have
-- I mean I would need a whole other FTE to cover managing all those permits and the
fees and everything else that go along with it. Obviously, the larger fire departments, like
our neighbors to the east, they have the FTEs to do that and so they charge for demolition
fees, you know, hot -- hot work fees, all that stuff, so --
Lavoie: Madam Mayor, Mr. Cavener, the question I was informed about is what is my
recommendation on the concern of this particular consent agenda item and the fee . Does
that summarize the question I had?
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Cavener: That wasn't the question, but that I think is great feedback to provide to the
Council.
Lavoie: Mr. Cavener, the opinion of the Finance Department is we believe that any fee
that the city is going to collect money on, regardless of its origination , should be reviewed
by some department, i.e. the Finance Department, or even the Fire Department with the
analysis before we charge and collect any revenue on behalf of the city or even on behalf
of a third party. That is our opinion of how fees should be managed within the Finance
Department. So, hopefully, that answers your question.
Cavener: It does. Thank you.
Lavoie: You're welcome.
De Weerd: Mr. Nary, wouldn't any kind of fee need a public hearing?
Nary: So, Madam Mayor, Members of the Council, I'm looking at the contract. We already
have a contract with this company. They, essentially, are a third-party vendor to do the
inspection. So, they charge the fee. It's not our fee. They remit a portion of that fee back
to us for the service -- the support that we provide to them to go do the work for us. It's
similar to be more in scope of how we direct people to back flow inspections . We don't
charge the fee, they charge the fees, they do the work, they do the inspections. Here
they are remitting a portion of the fee back to us in relation to the work that -- that the
chief does -- that Chief Bongiorno does. So, it's -- it's kind of a mix between -- it's not
really a typical city fee. We are not performing this function completely, we are performing
a portion of the function that we are getting this back from this third -party vendor. So, this
is already an existing contract. This is -- this is an addendum to their contract to change
the cost recovery of what they charge the other people. I think what the chief is saying
and what Council Member Cavener is saying is we are trying to -- wanted to true up is
this even an accurate reflection of the work that's being provided and do we want to agree.
I think they are just -- from what I have heard from the chief, they are just trying to be
consistent, so that you get an inspection in Star and it's ten dollars and you get an
inspection in Middleton and it's 30 dollars, you get an inspection in Meridian it's a hundred.
So, I think they are just trying to true up the fees in saying their 15 dollar recovery meets
the needs of this company to perform this service for us and that's why they are remitting
us the difference for our work. So, I don't disagree, we can certainly have that
conversation, but this is already an existing contract and these fees have already been
charged by the company, not by the city. So, that's kind of why it hasn't gone through the
normal -- what you would have -- are thinking of is the normal public hearing process
where we change fees, because this isn't a fee we are charging, it's a fee somebody else
charges.
De Weerd: Great. And -- and this just caught me flatfooted. The chief and I haven't
talked about it and so -- and since I wasn't here on Friday I didn't have a chance to -- to
get more detail. I think it would be appropriate to put this -- next week's agenda, what
does -- is next week the -- the long one?
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Johnson: Madam Mayor, you have two public hearings and another presentation and
some final plats that may or may not move to consent.
De Weerd: Yeah. I would just say let's bring this back next week --
Bongiorno: Okay.
De Weerd: -- and ask the -- the chief and I can talk about it.
Bongiorno: Sounds great. And also, Madam Mayor, just -- and, Council, to tag on what
Mr. Nary stated, we did have an open house with our vendors to let them know about it
and, then, two weeks later we did -- we presented to the Idaho Fire Protection Forum,
which is all the sprinkler companies and all those in the valley, we meet monthly at the
Hampton Inn and we did a presentation to them as well and at that presentation we did
talk about the fee schedule and Chief Gervais and I got together after, because we got a
lot of good feedback at that meeting, and we actually combined a bunch of the required
upload reports and we combined some and we deleted some to lessen the impact that
was going to be hitting the restaurant owners at the -- at the end of it and at that meeting
we did learn that when we implemented that 15 dollar fee a lot of -- some of the companies
actually didn't even pass that cost on to their -- they just ate it, so -- and, then, we also
sent a letter to BOMA, building maintenance people, and we did not receive any feedback
from them. So, we did say, hey, we are -- you know, we are going to do this and we did
have the one good meeting where we got a lot of feedback, so --
De Weerd: Well -- and, Joe, that's good information. So, if we can get that information
out to Council prior to next week, just detailing the different steps that have been made,
what -- what the actual amendment is, what we were doing before, how it's different under
this new amended agreement that is desired and , then, we can have probably a more
informed discussion.
Bongiorno: Perfect. That -- that actually was on the memo that got accidentally deleted
off the Novus, so it -- all that information is on the -- the memo that I sent along with this,
so if you read the memo and flip it over there is more on the back and that's the part that
talks about the meetings we had, so --
De Weerd: Okay.
Bongiorno: -- you have that information.
De Weerd: Okay.
Cavener: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Cavener.
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Cavener: And so next week when we bring this back is that an appropriate time for
Finance to come back with the analysis then as well? Is that going to be part of what we
are -- why we are also continuing it?
De Weerd: I don't know. We -- I will talk with Todd as well. This -- this is not typical, as
Mr. Nary pointed out, to the fee structure and the process that we have in place for that ,
but certainly under contract evaluations what -- what differences that is and -- and the
data that substantiates the changes. I will have a conversation with them.
Bongiorno: Thank you.
De Weerd: Okay. We will just put this over until next week.
Item 9: Department Reports
A. Parks and Recreation: Annual Department Report
De Weerd: We will move to Item 9-A under our Parks and Recreation Department, our
annual department update.
Siddoway: Mayor, Members of the Council, it is my pleasure to come before you for this
annual strategic update and I look forward to sharing with you some of the
accomplishments of this great team that I have behind me and share with you some of
the things that have been -- been going on. In the interest of time I'm going to go quickly
through the beginning part, which is more focused on mission, vision, values and staffing,
but I don't want to just skip it, because it is the basis for everything that we -- that we
choose to do. So, with our mission we really, really think about and strive to enhance the
quality of life for the citizens of Meridian. We do that through -- you know, through parks,
through programs, through pathways, through a variety of different things that we will be
talking about today. The key phrase in our vision, that family focused opportunities drives
a lot of our decisions. We found that a community that's friendly for families is really
friendly for everyone. Seniors love it. Kids love it. And everyone in between seems to
love it. Our focus areas, quality, community and fun, are those areas that are -- have kind
of become our -- our mantra on our wall. So, we want to talk a little bit about -- about who
we are and the structure of our department. One of -- there is a story here that I think is
worth telling. You can see that blank photo on the left with a TBD, we have been planning
and seeing the need for a -- an administrative division manager for a number of years. It
was in our comprehensive financial plan to come before you with this year's budget
process. The good news is we have seen savings and time savings and things from the
software that we implemented last year that have been driving more people to our website
like we hoped it would and we talked to you about and so we are constantly evaluating
the need and we are not going to ask just because it was in the plan, we think it's going
to wait a year. We will -- so, we bumped it out and we will evaluate it again next year
whether it's time. But this year we think that -- that that position can wait. So, we have
got me as the director, the marketing coordinator, three admin assistants -- we are -- our
recreation division is led by Colin Moss. He is our recreation manager and you can see
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the breakdown under him. I'm going to go fairly quickly through these. Garrett White
oversees our Home Court Division and Garrett oversees all of our -- the activities over
there, as well as the project that's going on that we will -- we will talk about. Our Parks
Division is overseen by Mike Barton, our park superintendent, and we will talk about some
of the activities that they have been up to, including our foreman, our arborist, our project
manager. The foreman is right here, Roger Norberg. He oversees the -- the park shop
and the -- all the maintenance activities that happen over there and we are divided out
there with an assistant foreman, two crew chiefs, and our maintenance techs and many
groundskeeper -- many seasonal groundskeepers that-- that help us through the summer.
I want to point out the incredibly important role that our Parks and Recreation Commission
does for us. This picture was taken just last month at our annual pathways tour. We were
blessed with some -- some good weather in between, several days of really bad weather,
so we hit it just -- just right. We went and rode some of the new pathways through town,
but we were blessed to have a great and engaged Parks and Recreation Commission
that helps us that the -- the questions and the projects and the challenges that -- that we
work on on a day-to-day basis.
Bernt: Shout out to the Godfather.
Siddoway: Our facilities -- of course everyone knows the building ran City Hall. Not
everyone realizes that the plaza is considered a city park and one that we manage and
maintain. Our maintenance shop is over on Lanark off of Locust Grove. We also have
the community center that's on Idaho in downtown , as well as the Home Court on Taylor
Avenue off Franklin Road. A lot of what we do is -- in these -- the -- the aspect of parks,
plazas and open spaces, as well as pathways and what we want to do right now is get
into some of our numbers. I know that this Commission loves to dive into the numbers
sometimes and -- and we want to share some of those with you , because they are
exciting. So, our -- the star by the three regional parks, because -- I'm including in here
are the soon to be open Discovery Park phase one. I want to announce to you today that
we -- the weather has been good enough over the last month that we are ready to pick a
date for the grand opening. That grand opening will be planned for July 26th. It's a Friday.
11 :00 a.m. We hope you can save the date if he can and be there for ribbon cutting and
we will talk more about this a little later, but the next day on Saturday we will -- we will
hold a public party in the park for the community for a few hours and invite everyone out
there. But we have six community parks, nine neighborhood parks , four special use
parks, two sports parks. The total of that number is 24. The top three are really the -- the
top three lines, which would come to 18, are the parks that everyone truly thinks of as
traditional parks with playgrounds and things like that. So, whenever I'm asked how many
parks do we have, I usually ask back, well, how do you want me to count them, because
the number can be 18, the number can be 24, depending on what you want to include .
But there they are broken out. We have 300 -- we just passed the 300 acre mark this
year for total developed park land. Three hundred and thirty-four acres. That number
does include phase one of Discovery Park. We own 97 acres of undeveloped park land.
That includes the remainder of Discovery Park, as well as what we call West Meridian
Regional Park now or the Borup property out Cherry Lane and McDermott. The future
acreage of Margaret Aldape Park is not included in there, because we don't own it yet,
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but we are in conversations about that. The pathway number was very different on Friday
and -- it was lower. It was -- yeah, we -- it needed a better analysis and I'm like I am not
convinced that the number we had was right and is good. We dug a little deeper and got
Brian McClure, bless his heart, in Planning helped us out to dig into the GIS data and help
us understand what all has been developed out there by all these new developments and
adding pathways that we don't necessarily maintain, but are part of our system , and what
we came up with was that we now have about 14 miles maintained by MP -- Meridian
Parks and Rec, that bottom number, but about 40 miles out there of parts of the pathway
system that have come together. That is about double the numbers that we have been
reporting to you in the past. So, we have seen some significant movement and growth in
our -- in our pathways recently, thanks to all the development that's going on. Our focus
internally is on those priorities of Five Mile Creek pathway, the Ten Mile Creek pathway,
and the Rail With Trail. Those are the ones you are probably most familiar with. Of course
there are other segments across the city that are being developed as you see on the --
the rest of the spaghetti map. But the green line, the purple line and the blue line are --
are those three. So, our pathways are increasing. You can see up over 80,000 and I
think those numbers there probably need to be refreshed based on the data that we just
got updated, but some of those numbers are -- are new and exciting to us. Let's talk
about urban forestry. I think this one deserves a little attention. We have been a Tree
City USA for now 17 years. We -- Elroy -- I don't think -- is Elroy here today? Oh, he is
in the back there. Elroy is our arborist. Has overseen a lot of growth. You can see the
number on the bottom. We now maintain over 55,000 trees in our -- in our public tree
system. There are way many more trees than that in Meridian, but he is overseeing our
downtown tree box program, which I'm going to give a little more detail here in just a
second. Our Arbor Day celebration went excellent this year and the Mayor, Genesis and
I just got a chance to see some of the cards that the kids made and sent over and they
are -- they are just sweet and special if anybody wants to see them. But they are a lot of
fun. And, of course, tracking down that -- that annual tree for our Christmas tree lighting
ceremony. Let's talk for just a moment about the -- the numbers of the trees. So, I
mentioned over 5,000 trees now. If you just go back ten years, our number was 1,690.
That's the -- that was the number of public trees. So, in ten years that's how much growth
we have seen in the number of trees that our arborist takes care of. We are going to be
asking for is the -- foreshadowing just some additional seasonal labor for forestry, so that's
one thing that we need with the growth , but one of the things that -- the thing that I want
to focus on and maybe a special kudo that I want to throw towards Elroy this year, the
downtown tree boxes has been an ongoing priority for us. We have been in partnership
with MDC. There were 96 original tree boxes out there that we were saying let's get the
old tree boxes replaced to the new style, a little bit bigger, better for the roots. Today 84
of them have been replaced. Two have been removed that were just determined they
were in the wrong spot. There are good reasons for them to go away. Eight are still out
there that have been rehabbed and determined -- we -- they are not a priority today. We
don't want to replace them today. The trees in them are still good. They are not cracking
the sidewalks. They do still at some point need to be replaced, but we don't think that
time is today. So, they are in a holding pattern. Wait and see. Replace them when the
time is right. Let's not rip out a good tree in a good spot just because the -- you know,
just because it's got the old style. At some point it will. And, then, there are two around
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the old McFadden property that we think will be redone . They are still the old style. So,
there's ten there that we think future development will -- will rehab. Over that time, over
the last ten years or so there has also been 49 new tree boxes added by development,
by City Hall, by Farmers and Merchants Bank, by COMPASS to name -- to name a few.
That's where those 49 come from. But they are in the new style, so there is now 145 out
there and this program has been -- been going very well for us, but we think that, you
know, the annual replacement cycle is going to pause and we will treat this in the future
like a detailed fixed cost and replace what needs to be replaced that year. So, thank you ,
Elroy.
De Weerd: Good job, Elroy. Hey, Steve, on your changes for the last ten years, how
many trees are in Kleiner Park?
Siddoway: About 1,200 in that park alone. Yeah. Trees, trees, trees was the mantra of
Gene Kleiner the first meeting I ever had with him and he wanted a lot of trees and -- and
we planted a bunch out there and, then, we were out in Kleiner Park at about 1:00 o'clock
today and I went over and watched a little video kiosk for -- you know, showing someone
the video of Gene Kleiner talking about his vision for the park and trees, trees, trees and
one thing I noticed in that park, it's only been -- it hasn't even been ten years yet, but the
trees have grown a lot over that time and looking at the little sticks that were in the video
compared to what's out there today was -- was pretty impressive. Next I want to talk
about classes, camps and excursions. Jake Garro has a lot to do with -- with this aspect
of our department and our activity guides that come out three times a year, December,
April and August. The April one, you know, came out a month ago. There -- we had a
special day with the opening day of registrations for summer classes. I think I have that
in the top right corner. The first -- the opening day of registrations we took in 26,000
dollars of registrations for summer classes. Last year that number was 6,000 dollars.
The year before that it was two. Part of that belongs to the credit of the new software.
People are engaging with the software more and able to get online and register up front.
Part of it was, remember, if you registered online with the old system you would have a
fee at the end. That -- that fee went away with the new software. It's friendlier to the
citizen and people are noticing. So, I wanted to share that with you. We continue to see
a general upward trend, except for 2015, which was a spike. Not sure why that one is
such its own little spike, but if you take that one year out you can just kind of see the
general upward trend and we are on track to have a similar result this year. Sports
leagues. You know, we -- we -- we have a lot of partners in the community that -- that
help us with our -- our youth sports. You know, the PALs and I-9 and -- I'm going to -- you
know, as soon as I start naming them my mind goes blank of everyone that should be
mentioned. MYB, others that help with these sports. They partner with us. As a
department we -- because the need is not met for the adult sports, that's where we put
our internal focus and we -- we partner with these other groups through field reservations
for the youth sports. But we have basketball, softball, both regular and slow pitch, flag
football, volleyball, and now an ultimate frisbee tournament that has been run . You can
see the -- the trend. Each different color represents a different sport and each line is a
year, so you can see the trend over the years. We are kind of topping off as we, you
know, kind of reach the capacity of our space, but the community is growing, the programs
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are growing, and you can see where we are on track this year, just slightly ahead of last
year, as we would expect to be. Tyler, thank you. I know I'm going to forget to say names
of people behind me. So, I apologize in advance if I do. Special events. Tyler said he
would give me five bucks if I said that Renee put the special in our special events again,
so there you go. These are --
De Weerd: Good spent money.
Siddoway: These are the events that -- that we focus on. Renee does just a phenomenal
job. Unplug And Be Outside Week was just this -- this past week and it was bigger and
better than ever. We were blessed with a really great weather week , a great kickoff in
Kleiner Park. CableOne Movie Nights start the first weekend in June. I did provide to
you the Movie Night schedule. We have a great lineup of movies this year. They are
every week, every Friday night, June, July and August that school is out. So, it doesn't
go to the very end of August this year, but it's based on the school calendar, because --
and the availability of our officers to be there and help with crowd control, but -- so, the
Movie Night schedule is there in front of you. I'm not going to go through the whole list ,
because I got some of these at the end with dates to -- to remember, so just know that
our events are strong and in my opinion -- in our mantra of quality, community, and fun,
nothing does more of what we do to build community than these. These bring out people
by thousands and is -- is something that's very rewarding to see how beloved they have
become in our community.
De Weerd: And all I can remember is CableOne Movie Night and when we got that
started that was -- it's exciting to see that it's still a very popular event and it's something
that -- that people look forward to. Good job, Colin.
Siddoway: Yeah. It's been a great program that was started and has been running. I
think last year was the year we hit our hundredth movie, is that right? Was it already a
couple of years ago? Oh, man. Time flies.
De Weerd: Time flies. Yeah.
Siddoway: Time flies. All right. Barb, as you know, is our volunteer coordinator and we
love our volunteers. Our volunteers do a lot for us and those volunteers come in many
forms, from the -- the faces that you see on a regular basis at the front desk to our park
ambassador program. City Hall tour guides, which are going on right now. We have a lot
of just churches and groups, businesses that reach out and want to do service projects.
We will do everything we can to find them a meaningful thing to do. It helps us, it's helps
them, and we have been blessed to have a lot of Eagle Scout projects lately and we love
our scouts and our scout projects. Here is some numbers. You can see that by the
numbers they are saving us about 200,000 dollars in labor costs if we were to just pay for
the time that they do internally. So, we love and appreciate our volunteers very much and
the number of hours, you know, is over 9,000 hours a year right now that we are -- that
we are able to take advantage of. So, thank them. A quick slide here. I'm probably not
going to do it justice, but I did provide you a copy of the -- the actual very brief study. This
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comes from -- it's not the full study, it's just numbers. Let me back up. So, the National
Recreation and Parks Association did a national study of the economic impact of parks
and recreation in the nation. Well, they realized when they had done -- been done building
this entire database that they could stratify it regionally, you know, they didn't do -- we
didn't have to just plug numbers into a national database, they said, hey, we can look at
just the Treasure Valley and if any departments are interested in knowing what their
economic impact is for their community in terms of dollars and jobs , you know, send us
your -- your numbers for -- for operating budgets and capital project budgets and we can
help you with that. So, it -- based on what we did last year alone -- and they are telling
me this is a conservative number -- that we generated about 18.6 million dollars in
economic activity for our community and supported 181 jobs. Now, if you have specific
questions, I'm probably not going to be able to answer it, but there is a link to the study in
the -- the paper I gave you and if you have questions I can try and get t he answers for
you, but I -- it was a fun number to get and I just wanted to share it with you and before I
go too far saying that this is special and specific to just Parks and Rec, I -- I want -- having
talked to Todd, I want to acknowledge that, you know, the economic -- the spending that
happens in other departments has a similar impact, it's just that we have been able to
quantify it, because we had the opportunity. So, here is where I really want to share and
focus is some of the accomplishments that have happened over the last year. The park
wide ADA repairs that were required are completed ahead of schedule. We are very
grateful that we are where we are. It's been reinspected. It's been signed off . That sign-
off has been provided to legal and we are moving on. So, we have the project with the
Fix It bike repair stations that was MYAC driven and participatory budget. Last year most,
if not all of you were there, that our -- at Hillsdale Park and The Hill partnership dedication
on May 25. We -- we lovingly called it the Marty Party. He brought in the band, Southwest
Surfers, and we had a great day out there. The Kleiner Park fishing dock was recently
approved by Council. You can see a photo of it there on the left and it is in place. We will
be having an actual dedication ceremony at the end of this month on the 30th . There is
still some landscaping repairs and sod being put in and things like that, but here in just a
couple weeks we will formally open it, although it is in place and safe to use now and I
saw someone on it using it today. So, we opened the third summer camp site at Discovery
Elementary, a second site up north filled and one of the things we were worried about
was we were -- were we just going to pull away from our existing one. The answer to that
was, no, we actually filled both sites and we are poised and ready to talk about opening
a fourth site for next year. Not this summer, but -- we assumed the operations of Fuller
Park. We did a repair -- a pretty significant repair job on the -- on the Blackstone pathway,
which is the one near Fuller Park. The Lemp Larkwood pathway, which is along McMillan
between Meridian Road and Locust Grove was last year done and put in in gravel, but
we had to hold off for the irrigation district to complete some repairs. They asked us not
to pave it until they got their equipment on it and that's been paved now and that's a photo
of it on the top left. So, that project is done. The Linder Road sidewalk connection and
that pathway widening Near Tully Park was done last -- last summer. The Home Court
improvements are underway. You guys recently approved the contract. Demolition
started last Monday and is going in earnest. I believe yesterday was the day they started
tearing into the restrooms, is that correct? So, we had to wait until this weekend -- this
last weekend, because of a large annual tournament that happens in there that needed
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the restroom facilities. So, yesterday -- so, this is just very freshly underway. But we are
moving forward with the -- the Home Court improvements. Pine Avenue landscaping was
a partnership project with -- with ACHD and the Planning Department and, then, the band
shell shade -- you can see a photo there on the bottom left. It was just completed in the
last couple weeks and it is in place and I think it looks great. We will have the symphony
under it this -- for Gene Kleiner Day here in a few weeks on the second Saturday in June
and very pleased with how that project turned out. Let's talk about Discovery Park . That's
-- that's the big 800 pound elephant, a project for us right now. Large playground with the
water log, sand and water play, the roller slides, the nine foot Idaho theme climbing map
that's kind of really got a lot of buzz and attention . The zip lines. The playgrounds for
both the older kids and the younger kids. The splash pad. Also -- and these were some
of the amendments that you approved for us last year, instead of just one picnic shelter
it's now three. We have got our two illuminated softball fields. We got our -- our shaded
raised stage. The restroom concessions building. Parking for about 280 vehicles, which
is -- it's not going to be enough on day one and for -- the Christmas and Easter at church
version, but it will support the general uses there, but we are already looking forward to
phase two and expanding that -- that parking with the next phase. We do have an off -
leash dog area. We have learned from our current dog park that Meridian residents love
their dogs and I will bet that acre for acre that dog park is probably our most heavily used
park space that we have today. It will have walking paths. Three interpretive gardens.
Pollinator garden fire wise and low water use. An open play area for events and our
maintenance shop and, then, the signage, which also we think functions as art. Now, we
have been putting together a time lapse video for you and, Rachel, if you will bring that
up for us. Click on that and fill the screen. I will talk over it just a little bit just to let you
know what you are looking at. The pole was set up near the playground area . This is
looking to the southwest where -- that wall is part of the playground. That kind of square
wall is where the climbing rock will be. And, then, the area on the right is the sand and
water play where you see the -- and you see snow and, then, melt and, then, snow and,
then, melt over this last winner. Now, we are looking from the same pole towards the --
the north -- or, sorry, the southeast. This is toward the splash pad. The concessions
building is going up right there. There is the concessions building. And, then, in the
distance the ball fields and you can see the lights from the -- from all those ball fields.
And we were able to get those ball field seeded last year, so that grass is coming in well
as you can see as the drone shot goes up. That's the sand and wa ter play. There is the
playground area. Zooming around. That's the zip line. You can see the dog park area in
the background there. And you can see the grass on the ball fields coming in well and
we hope the rest of the park will get seeded soon. You know, we need ten to 12 weeks
to get that established enough to get -- start hosting events and activities on it, but we are
excited to see it coming together so well. I want to give Mike Barton some -- some props
as our project manager out there for overseeing that and several of our construction
projects and taking that forward successfully. So, with that I want to transition from some
of the accomplishments to what we see on the horizon. I mentioned that we are thinking
about a fourth summer camp site at Ponderosa Elementary. We have reached out. They
have agreed with that as a possibility. We already have it in our agreement with the school
district that that can happen. The Champion and Renaissance Park art is a partnership
with the Arts Commission and you can see the concept plans over on the right-hand side
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for what that art is planned to look like and that's supposed to be under construction this
year and installed either late this fall or I think some of them are even early next spring.
We have talked a little bit already about Home Court Bay 5 and the restrooms and the
renovations that are going on there. The ownership of Fuller Park. So, we have taken
on the maintenance of Fuller Park already as you know. We plan to take over ownership
this October. When we do that rededication, rebranding with a new sign that says City of
Meridian instead of Western Ada Rec District, we would also like to have an official
dedication of what's already been announced by the Mayor as the Charlie Roundtree Ball
Field and we have an item coming up after -- after this to talk about putting some new
fencing up around that -- that field. Other things on the horizon. Five Mile Creek pathway.
Segment D is the segment near the wastewater treatment plant, from Ten Mile to Black
Cat. We have been meeting with -- with Public Works and talking about their plans and
how do we get our pathways through and connected and now it kind of goes up to that
point and stops. The Oaks project has -- has built some new pathway -- actually between
-- along the same creek from -- between Black Cat and McDermott, so we have more that
we can connect to if we can get there. We are also excited -- we already talked to you
last year about the trailhead near Reta Huskey Park and with the Ten Mile Road widening
project, that's one that we look forward to -- to seeing and we have already come forward
with the cost share with the -- with the -- with ACHD. Sorry. That's what I was looking for.
And that project will be moving forward. We recently got -- so, Fuller Park was not part
of our ADA repairs originally when we took it on. We talked about this when we took it on
that we knew that there were ADA issues out there. We have the money for that in our
budget that was granted and being covered by the -- the funds that were passed on from
Western Ada Rec District and so that study has recently been completed and we are
underway. The picture kind of in the center is some of those projects near the restroom
and we are moving forward out there. The Pine Avenue pedestrian rest area is one that
we have been excited about. The concept plan is in the top right there. This is kind of
where the -- the pathway system crosses Pine and we have talked about having a rest
area, bike repair station, benches, things like that out there, but we are moving forward
with our planning for that. And, then, this Heroes Park parking expansion design is a
recent conversation I just wanted to put on your radar with a conversation with PAL. With
the Ten Mile Road widening project we know all that parking that has been happening
along Ten Mile is going away and how do we start accommodating some possible
expanded needs and we are talking about with them about possible cost share and how
do we accomplish that. So, more to come on that, but something that I wanted to get on
your radar that we are looking into. Our next section is just a quick update. You had a
specific update on the strategic plan from the Mayor's office just a month or two ago, but
we just wanted to quick check in and give you a quick update on where we are. So ,
Objective 5-A-2, which was Discovery Park phase one design and bidding, that part's
completed. It also talked about public sports facilities and we had talked at the time about
getting Home Court was -- was part of that and that one has been checked off and
deemed accomplished. Excuse me. Objective 5-A-4 is one that was about fostering the
development of Discovery Parks. At the time it was written it was specifically about
Discovery Park, but with the completion of that the Council and the Mayor asked us to
adapt that and change it to -- to adding discovery elements to all of our existing and future
parks. So, the Heroes Park project from last year was part of that. The projects for this
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year that are going to be going into Renaissance and Champion are part of that and what
we want -- this one is still underway, but we want to look at our existing neighborhood
parks and their themes and identities and how -- make a plan for how they can be
reinforced in the future and 5-B-4 was recently completed and that was given in our
update to Council already from the Mayor's office, but this was the one where we looked
at all of our existing recreation programs, identified gaps and -- and what do we need to
-- to focus on moving forward. Just a quick look at the -- what we see coming. I don't
think I'm going to read every bullet for you , but you do have a copy of this presentation .
We just wanted to take a look at what's in our comprehensive final -- comprehensive
financial plan looking ahead. We are already looking at -- you know, we haven't opened
phase one in Discovery Park, we are already thinking about what do we need to do to
start biting off phase two. A rec coordinator for adult sports for the growth that we have
seen there. It's -- it's doubled since we created that position and more are coming with
the facilities that are being added. So, I think I'm just going to move on from there. You
have a copy of this one, because I -- so, you have a -- and this was what the Mayor was
referring to at the beginning. So, if anyone is wondering what the Mayor was referring to
that, hey, I just got this at the beginning of the meeting, don't have time to go through it
all here. Here it is. So, dates, you might want to know. Today -- earlier today there was
a check presentation from Blue Cross to the library for a story trail and they want to
provide that story trail in Kleiner Park around the south pond near the senior center. It's
intended for -- for seniors to be able to walk with their grandkids and read them a story
and -- and one of the coolest things to me, Mayor -- and you were there -- was that this
was selected not just by the Blue Cross Foundation, but the Blue Cross employees
actually donated these funds and selected the project . So, that was -- that was kind of
fun to see and we are excited to partner with them to see if we can bring that project to
Kleiner Park. A week from today in Kleiner Park there will also be an Idaho Power check
presentation where they have agreed to fund the batteries that we needed to get the --
the Park Ambassador Egg, the vehicle that they drive, back up and functioning. The
batteries were old and worn out and had a great long life, longer than they ever were
intended to I understand, but they have been very gracious in saying that they will cover
the cost of those batteries and kudos to Barb for -- for reaching out and -- and coordinating
that. Memorial Day ceremony is at the Rock of Honor. That's an annual one and many
of you come to that every year, so I wanted to make sure you knew that that is going to
happen on Memorial Day, May 27th at 11:00 a.m. And, then, like I already mentioned,
the fishing dock dedication will happen later that week on the 30th at the Kleiner Park
dock. In June the CableOne Movie Night starts and, then, Gene Kleiner Day -- here is
the date. So, June 8th we will have the Meridian Symphony in the band shell under the
new canopy and have a concert and really look forward to that. Playing in the Plaza is a
concert series that will be right out in front of City Hall. Thi s is kind of the new
reincarnation of the Kleiner Park concert series that we have had . There was a desire to
move it downtown and try something new kind of in the Alive After 5:00 sort of vein and
so from June 13th through the end of July, every Thursday, 5 :00 p.m. at the end of the
work day there will be a concert series in the plaza out front. The one exception to what
that date range I just said is the Fourth of July is a Thursday and that will have its own
event in Storey Park and fireworks, which is my next item , so -- and, then, the Discovery
Park grand opening, the two dates are there, July 26th and 27th. So, we hope to look
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forward to joining us for that. With that you can keep up with all the action with this online.
Shelly is great at updating our website and -- and putting things out, keeping our website
updated. So, we hope you will follow some of the exciting activities. With that let me
once again just turn around and say this is the team behind me that makes all these things
possible and I will stand for any questions.
De Weerd: Thank you, Steve. And thank you to your team. Council, any questions?
Cavener: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Cavener.
Cavener: Great presentation. Very thorough. I did have a couple of questions that
popped up and I'm hoping you can provide some clarification on. One, I'm really excited
to hear about the gardens that are happening in Discovery. That was something that
wasn't on my -- my radar. Who is going to maintain that? Is that going to be an operation
of the Parks Department? Is it hopes to have a volunteer organization like the community
garden at Kleiner? What's the vision of that particular piece?
Siddoway: So, those gardens will be maintained by park staff. I suppose we are open to
volunteers. I'm going to turn around and look at Mike. But we are always open if there is
groups that want to help us take those on. But right now the plan and current vision is
that they will be maintained as part of the park.
Cavener: Great. Madam Mayor, follow up again. Steve, I -- I love our tree box program.
I think it creates a really unique sense of place for downtown, just for our community in
general. I often, though, wonder about -- I mean it's an ongoing cost liability to the city
and I don't know if you and your team have ever thought is there -- is there another way
that we can kind of capture that same charm with something that is a little more of a
permanent fixture and I don't know what that is, but I guess I'm just more --
Siddoway: Fake trees?
Cavener: -- planning to see them. And I don't know if it's fake trees. I don't know what it
is. I don't think it's fake trees. But, you know, I guess I would challenge your -- your team,
who are amazing, that if those options present themselves, that's something that I'm --
I'm interested in and it's something that I think could have some significant cost savings.
Now, there is things that are worthy of investment and creating the sense of place in our
downtown community I believe is worthy of the investment, but if there are other ways
that we can reduce some of that cost long term is something I'm also really supportive of.
Siddoway: And to your point, what probably warrants looking into is do we have the
expense right, you know, make sure we are not going further and wider -- you know, what
is the right expense for that -- that true heart of the community where we want to make
that investment. Yeah.
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Cavener: A couple other comments if I can, Madam Mayor. Just for Council, I got to bug
Steve the other day. I had a chance to go see the dock and the shade structure as Unplug
And Be Outside and I just want to echo what Steve said, the shade structure looks like it
was built on day one. I mean it really looks like it's a strong fixture within the park. I
encourage you to go out and check it out and when I was out there people were already
out using the fishing dock. So, I think it's going to be really, really popular. Just want ed
to thank you. You know, you and your department always seems to elevate everything
you do and when you look at those maps, those charts, you see, elevations in our classes,
the rec -- elevation in our recreation events, elevation in our volunteer engagement. I just
think it's a true testament to you and your amazing staff , who I always -- I hear from a lot
and, you know, we hear this a lot from people who engage our emergency responders
sometimes it's -- it's always not on their best day, but I hear time and time again about
how people talk about how some of their best days happened in our Parks Department
and that's just a testament to you and your great staff, including Rachel who always is
quick to answer an off-the-wall question that I have and I appreciate all you do for our city
and -- and for Steve and for our great department. So, thank you for a job well done.
Siddoway: Thank you. And thank you for mentioning Rachel. She -- you know, I have
already heard a few comments from people that previewed this presentation and said that
it was very visually appealing and lots of photos and Rachel put that together and many
other things for me. So, thank you Rachel.
De Weerd: She does make you look good.
Siddoway: I appreciate that.
Milam: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mrs. Milam.
Milam: Yeah, I was one of those people. Sorry. Very -- very nice presentation. I
previewed it and was like, wow, very professional. The photos were amazing. We have
already discussed most of this stuff, but I just wanted to say thank you to you and the
whole team, you guys truly are the fun department and our parks are so amazing, I can't
-- I mean we all love -- we do this because Meridian is the best place to live; right? I can't
imagine Meridian without our parks, the way that they are. So, it's what makes Meridian
great. One of the most important things. So, thank you.
Siddoway: Thank you.
De Weerd: And that's noted every single time we get recognition, so -- as I remind your
staff.
Palmer: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Palmer.
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Palmer: I accidentally found my way into a Boise park the other day. We didn't even
make it in and we just turned around and left , because there was so much goose crap
that it was pointless to go to a Boise park. So, thank you for whatever you do that keeps
them out of Meridian so you can actually use the acres of grass that we have in our parks.
Siddoway: Thank you.
De Weerd: I think maybe Roger or Mike might say they work really hard to keep that stuff
out of the park.
Siddoway: Yeah.
De Weerd: It's too bad some of the neighbors let them back in.
Siddoway: Well, thank you.
B. Parks and Recreation Department: FY2019 Budget Amendment
- Charlie Rountree Field Improvements - Fuller Park for a Not-
to-Exceed Amount of $58,500 (Action Item)
De Weerd: Thank you. Item 9-B is under our Parks Department. It's for a 2019 budget
amendment to the Charlie Rountree field improvements. I see Mike making his way
forward.
Barton: Thank you, Madam Mayor, Members of Council. We are bringing forward a
budget amendment for 58,500 dollars that will allow us to do some field improvements in
Fuller Park. These field improvements will be on the field that we intend to dedicate to
Charlie Rountree in October when we take ownership of the park. We -- we had this as
a -- as part of our amendment last summer when we -- we asked for funding for the park
and this particular item. Some of the fencing we still kept the ADA repairs in there, but
the fence improvements were cut from that budge t, so we have this also as a future
enhancement or for next fiscal year, but thought that there might be some momentum to
get these improvements done prior to the field dedication. So , with that I will stand for
questions.
De Weerd: Thank you, Mike. Council, any questions? Okay.
Milam: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mrs. Milam.
Milam: Seeing none, I move that we approve the FY-19 budget amendment for Charlie
Rountree field improvements Fuller Park for not to exceed amount of 58,500 dollars.
Little Roberts: Second.
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De Weerd: I have a motion and a second. Any discussion from Council? We have a
motion to approve the Item 9-B for the budget amendment of 58,500. Mr. Clerk, will you,
please, call roll.
Roll call: Borton, yea; Milam, yea; Cavener, yea; Palmer, yea; Little Roberts, yea; Bernt,
absent.
De Weerd: All ayes. Motion carried.
MOTION CARRIED: FIVE AYES. ONE ABSENT.
Barton: Thank you.
C. Finance Department: Quarterly Update
De Weerd: Thank you, Mike. Item 9-C is under our Finance Department with our
quarterly update.
Lavoie: Madam Mayor, Members of Council, good afternoon to you guys.
De Weerd: Hi, Todd.
Lavoie: Appreciate you allowing us to present to you our quarterly updates for you. This
is our May -- our Q2 update for you. Brad Smith was just here and, you know, he stole
most of the thunder, so I think I'm going to go through this presentation pretty quickly for
you. This is the presentation where we present to you our demographics. I think what
Brad presented to you was very relevant to what I'm going to present to you through these
slides. Again, demographics, permit data, what's next, what are we doing. So, with that
the next eight graphs -- these are data points that we have collected from COMPASS,
from census, from Enterprise Fund, from the Community Development team, from
Finance team. These are all comparatives between 2003 and the most recent data that
we have. The first one is population and I can let you know that census -- or COMPASS
-- sorry -- COMPASS just gave us our 2019 number audited, ready to go, 114,680 is your
2019 number. We projected 114,100, so we weren't too far off. But, again, 114,600 is
your 2019 number. So, if someone wants to know what is the population for 2019, that is
the official number that we will post in our books going forward. So , a little bit of growth.
Again, utility accounts, city fees -- again park acres, I didn't have the correct number. It's
334, not 332. So, I apologize about that. So, a little bit more there. The next four slides
-- again, data collected via the four departments. You will see a trend. Single family
homes, multi-family. The taxable value, we just got that from Brad Smith. The far right
one. I projected 10.5. I was not projecting 24 percent, I will be very honest with you and
it came in at 11.8, so I will be updating my slide today. Again, we were a little bit more
conservative than 24 percent increase year over year. So, that number will go up
accordingly. So, again, kind of go with what Brad was talking about from Ada county. The
slide here is this represents all eight sides on one page. What we are trying to depict
here is what Brad's saying is that we are growing. Some parts of the city are growing
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faster than others. Taxable value is our number one thing that's going to go up a little bit
more. We can be confident that there are more homes. More retail spaces. Definitely
more citizens to serve for the public safety team. Definitely more things to provide for our
citizens. This growth is happening. You guys are approving the development projects on
a weekly basis. You know what's coming on. Unfortunately, things aren't getting any
cheaper. So, as we are growing faster than we are projecting, as we are growing faster
costs are coming in a little bit higher. I just want to present to you that this -- these data
points assist the Mayor and the directors with developing the 2020 budget, which you will
receive in two weeks. So, again, some of these data points here are assisting us with
how we develop our budget, not only for 2020, but also for our ten year capital
improvement -- or capital financial plan. This is just a quick graph I wanted to share with
you this year. First time I was able to find the Meridian unemployment rate. We are doing
better than everybody on -- from a state to United States. I just show you this, which not
-- and not to say, you know, look at the numbers are great, it's more of a concern from a
recruitment process that I want to bring to your attention. As we get the inflow of more
people here to the city, as is becoming more popular, as Brad Smith told us, we are finding
challenges in recruiting. It's becoming tighter. It's becoming more difficult. And, again,
our team members are doing the best they can. HR is working very hard to get the recruit
-- the employees on our staff, but this is just to kind of remind us that we will continue to
see a tight labor market as more people continue to move here and we just ne ed to be
aware of that and plan accordingly when we staff and approve our FTEs. That one -- so
I'm skipping. Sorry about that. It didn't get deleted in time. The next -- this next section
kind of goes along with what Brad was saying. This is a website that tracks land
information. I present this to you every year. This just echoes what Brad Smith was
saying. Meridian is getting tons of submissions for development. You guys are seeing
them. You are hearing about them. Community Development is managing them as fast
as they can with the staff that they have. Again, this is just to remind us, yes, people are
still interested in the city of Meridian. We are a very attractive city to live in, to work in,
and raise a family in and this slide just helps support that. This is Q1 of 2019. So, just a
few months old. Nothing new here, guys. I present this to you every year. It's up. And
you guys approve the permits. You guys approve the plans. You guys approve the
development. 2018 was almost record breaking. 2019 is on a strong pace right now.
Again, I just present this to remind you that we need to take all these into consideration ,
these approvals. That's putting more pressure on the public safety to get to the outer
limits of this city, it's putting pressure on admin staff. Budget for 2020 takes this into
consideration. So, again, just more highlighting what Brad Smith has told you. Yeah,
over the last 15 years I think your -- your city employees have done a phenomenal job in
managing this insane phenomenal growth. Again, we have asked them to work -- you
know, tax them a little bit in the past, I assume to do more and more. I just want to put
out -- you know, just remind you as we continue to improve development let's remember
about the employees. We are asking them to do more and more if we continue to push
these developments faster and faster. Next is what's next. Again, COMPASS just gave
us the 2019 number. This is where we were in 2020. It's 34,000. That's crazy to think.
Just 19 years ago. Or 2000. Sorry. We were just there. It was 19 years ago and now
where are we going. The 114 is the new COMPASS number we just got officially. One
fifty by 2020 -- 2030. A hundred and 64 by 2040, guys. So, again, Brad Smith told us the
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interest is high. Market values are going up. We are building our budget to this , we are
building our capital plans to this and we are building our staffing models to this. So, with
this -- you know, what is next? We have seen the city grow tremendously over the last
15 years. You guys know what you are approving for the future. We are planning
everything we can based on what you are approving , guys. Both projects in the south
and the Te n Mile are going to be huge impacts for us. I know Jeff in Public Works, they
are working hard to make sure you get -- they have the water system there, the public
safety systems there. My request to you and the rest of the city and the department
decision makers is make sure we plan accordingly. Let's make sure we set up -- the next
decision makers up for success and that is my ultimate desire -- or that's my goal is to
make sure we not only do what we are doing today right, but also the next Mayor, the next
Council Members. We want to make sure we set them up for success, like we have done
for the last 15 years and that's just my request to all of us. So, with that, yeah, we have
been growing, we continue to grow. Common theme here is growing, guys, and we need
to consider, to discuss, collaborate, have sound and thorough meetings about everything
we are doing, because we are going to continue to grow and we have a lot on our plate
and with that I stand for any questions and I echo what Mr. Smith said from Ada county
today, it's busy out there, guys, and we are doing everything we can to meet your citizens'
needs, I can promise you that. And just remember that the employees are working hard.
That's -- I can -- I can tell you from the -- from our Finance Department, everybody is
working hard to make sure that the citizens get what they want and with that I stand for
any questions.
D. Vehicle Sharing (E-Scooter) Program Update
De Weerd: And I think every director can tell you the very same. Council, any questions?
Thank you, Todd. Okay. Item 9-D is our vehicle sharing e-scooter program update and I
will turn this over to Mr. Nary.
Nary: Thank you, Madam Mayor, Members of the Council. I can start. You may have
some specific questions about the process and Keith Watts is here, he can answer that.
This is really just a project update of the process and where we are. There was an RFP
that was issued on March 15th. A committee was formed with Scott Colaianni from police,
Mike Barton from Parks, Emily Kane from my office, Caleb Hood from Planning, Josh
Evarts from the citizens. Samantha Mitchell, who I don't recall specifically what her
interest was, and Britain Davis, who I believe is part of MYAC. I think.
De Weerd: Yes.
Nary: So, we had -- so, we had a mixture of both city staff , as well as citizens that
expressed interest in this particular area. They issued the RFP on March 15th. It was,
then -- there were two proposals that were submitted. One from Bird. One from Lime.
On April 15th the materials were sent for evaluation to the committee. They had a scoring
criteria based on a variety of different things that were contained within the RFP of what
the city was looking for in a proposal. That was then -- the evaluation team met on April
24th. They reviewed and discussed the proposals and the various attributes of each of
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the providers. The evaluators, then, released to finalize their evaluations and do their
scoring and return them to the purchasing mana ger. They received the scores from the
committee on April 29th. May 3rd purchasing sent the results back to the committee
confirming the committee's decision. The recommendation from the committee was for
one single vendor, which was Bird to be the -- selected as the provider for this franchise.
May 6th the notice of intent was issued to Bird. Notice was given to Lime that they were
not selected. We have had a number of inquiries, both from Council, as well as public --
public primarily Lime in regards to the information, the scoring and the RFPs and things
like that, which we have responded to and provided them all the information they have
requested. There is an opportunity -- to help me clarify a little bit from a process
standpoint. When you do an RFP, if there is questions or concerns or misunderstandings
or a lack of clarity or whatever that may be in the -- in the RFP, there is an opportunity
you have up front before it is -- before it is released for -- within the timeframe to comply,
there is an opportunity to get clarification and we had that happen both in -- in bids for --
for Public Works projects, as well as RFPs. So, we get questions and most times -- and
Mr. Watts can be more specific if you have a question -- if we get a question, almost
always the response goes back to all the providers. So , that way every -- figuring if one
person has a question, they probably all have the same question , so we always provide
clarification to anyone who asks and anyone who is -- who has participated. In this case
there weren't any, so there was no concern -- or at least no one expressed to the city that
bid -- the RFP was unclear or the desire -- what the city wanted was unclear. So, the
process followed its normal course. When it's completed there is also an opportunity to
protest the award. Now, the protest is not of the awardee, the protest is of the process to
select the awardee. So, again, there is an opportunity if someone has an issue. It's a
little bit more -- it's a little bit more difficult -- and most of them -- again, if you are looking
at a Public Works project and -- and I will echo something that Mr. Watts has said to us a
number of times -- lots of people say they are going to protest. All the time. Lots of people
tell me they are going to file a tort claim. All the time. It doesn't necessarily mean they
are going to, it doesn't necessarily mean it has merit. But that's not an uncommon
response from an unsuccessful bidder, whether it's a project or whether it's an RFP. So,
we try to work with them and try to figure out what their concerns are, but, you know, in
the RFP, the process is what a protest would be regarding. Not who was selected, but
how the process occurred. So, if there is a flaw or an error or something to that point,
then, that could go back to Mr. Watts for evaluation and determination and whether that
is something that could be handled at the administrative staff level or is that something
that would rise to a Council level decision. At this juncture we don't have any of that. So,
it really was a -- today was simply to tell you where we were . We have -- we have a
contract that is being discussed between Bird and the city to meet the requirements within
the RFP and we haven't reached a final decision on that -- on that contract at this point,
but it has been communicated to them and there is some back and forth that's occurring
on that. That's all I have on the process. And, again, Mr. Watts is here if you have specific
questions about any piece of the process. Again, I wasn't on the committee, so I wasn't
involved with that, so -- questions?
De Weerd: Thank you, Bill. Council, any questions?
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Cavener: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Cavener.
Cavener: I have a question and I don't know if it's the right time or not and I don't know
who to ask it to, but I know that one of the pieces that Council had discussed with going
with two operators was the amount of revenue required to kind of offset the cost of
managing this program. Now, we have cut that amount in half. So, is there -- is the -- will
there be discussion in the negotiations, then, to increase the amount that we are going to
ask from the operator to offset the costs? I just want to make sure that we are not asking
taxpayers to subsidize our scooter program, because we only selected one vendor,
instead of two. And I don't know if there is a monetary consequence that we want --
Nary: And maybe Mr. Watts can answer that better. I think what -- when I spoke with
Mrs. Kane today of the amount, I think the amount that we had settled on and -- and,
frankly, I apologize, I don't recall if this is the amount from the prior discussions or whether
the committee discussed it, but I think approximately from June 1 to December 31st,
which is the period of this contract, it's approximately 14,000 dollars. So, I don't know if
that's -- and, again, we are sort of guesstimating a little bit on what resources of the city
are necessary and how that's going to be accomplished and what -- what subsidy --
subsidizing is done, if any, but that -- the direction was -- in regards to the selection, the
Council's direction was up to two and partly because if you recall the conversation was
kind of dependent on scoring, you know, you could have one that scored really well, one
not so much and there was some confusion or misunderstanding about that for some
folks. So, we had -- Mr. Watts spoke directly with the committee members and asked
them specifically if they -- when they selected one, did they believe they could only select
one or did they only want to choose one. Two of the members said they didn't understand
that they could select more than one and they didn't care. The other -- all the other five
members of the committee said, no, we weren't -- we didn't necessarily know whether we
could or not, that doesn't matter, we really only thought the Bird proposal was the
appropriate choice for the city. So, it wasn't a decision where they felt like they were
restricted or anything, they felt that that was the proper and appropriate vendor to select
and they didn't feel that two were appropriate. So, I don't know if that answers your first
part of your question, but that -- that was what they were looking at was simply the -- the
particular program and the cost for that.
Cavener: Okay. Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Cavener.
Cavener: A question I guess for Mr. Nary. Where do we go, then, from here?
Nary: So, what happens now is the -- again, we will have that, hopefully, fairly soon. We
will have the contract back with you -- again there is some -- typical of most of these,
there is generally a little bit of negotiation on some terms or conditions. Again, there is a
sample that's provided as part of the RFP, so we hope to have that done within the next
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week or two at the most. I don't know if Keith has a target in mind. I think a week or two
is the norm. So, that you have that back in front of you for approval or not. And I do have
-- before Keith starts, Mrs. Kane did advise me here that they -- they still use the same
25,000 dollar franchise fee number. If you recall the earlier discussion was to prorate it
based on when it would be awarded. So, that 25,000 dollar fee, then, if we go from June
to December, ends up being 14,000.
Watts: And just for clarification, we are anticipating having the contract ready for the 28th
of this month.
De Weerd: And that contract would state when this -- the rollout would be.
Watts: Correct. And I believe in the contract -- I believe it is the first week of June is
anticipated. I would have to look through it again. I don't have it in front of me, but I
believe it's the first week of June and it will run through December 31st of this year.
De Weerd: Okay. Council, any other questions?
Palmer: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Palmer.
Palmer: Not a question, just want to express kind of some frustration over how the
process kind of went here. The last time that Council had a discussion prior to the RFP
being published, the discussion surrounded the point, but, then, Councilman Borton
articulated very clearly in his motion that it was to be up to two. That motion that was
voted unanimously on was ignored. In the opening paragraph of the RFP under purpose
it spoke of a -- an exclusive contract being awarded to the chosen proposer and we
explained that away by saying aren't we lucky that all but one of the board was ignorant
of -- of this major point that was in the opening paragraph under purpose of the RFP. So,
luckily, they made a decision based on not realizing that was right there . Whether other
companies might have looked at the RFP or read that opening paragraph and said, well,
we haven't been involved in -- in the process in Meridian, there is two that have been
heavily involved in it, we are not going to bother. I don't know if anybody else looked at
it, but that's what was in there and that's what was published. I mean I don't have a
problem with the decision of one. That was the point of up to two, but I'm just kind of
frustrated that the language wasn't changed even after we clearly asked that it be
changed.
Nary: Well, Madam Mayor, Members of the Council, Council Member Palmer, I guess I
would disagree that the Council's direction was ignored. I don't think exclusive -- again,
it's a public process. If there was a person like you're -- like you're suggesting that didn't
understand whether or not they would be eligible or be considered, well, that's when they
are supposed to ask. There is no way for us to know ever that someone reads it and
interprets it in a way that was not intended. So, I don't know how to ever answer that
question on any RFP. But there always is an opportunity to ask. There are other vendors
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in the marketplace. We know that. Whether they choose to or not -- for whatever reason
they choose to or not is not something we can control. So, I don't believe it was ignored.
I don't know if exclusive was -- it wasn't a concern to the two that submitted. They didn't
have an issue on whether that was one or two or exclusive to Meridian's method of
operations or method of -- of -- of what we desired as a community. I don't know what
they interpreted that to mean, because they didn't ask. But they certainly submitted
without it being of a concern to them to submit. So, I -- I just -- I respectfully disagree. I
don't think anything was ignored. I think the Council -- the committee all felt subsequently
that was not an issue to them, they selected the vendor they felt was the most appropriate.
They didn't feel like two vendors were appropriate for a majority of the group.
Palmer: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Palmer.
Palmer: And that's fine. Really it just comes back down to the point of the entire
discussion surrounded that it was to be up to two. The motion clearly specified that and
the RFP clearly said an exclusive contract would be awarded. Completely opposite of
the entire discussion and specific motion that was made. Whether anybody didn't catch
that in potentially wanting to submit a proposal or in submitting a proposal or in being on
the committee, I think it's -- it's sad that it wasn't realized, that it's concerning that we are
using that as the explanation to explain it away that it didn't really matter, because they
didn't really realize it was in there, but the fact that that's the action Council tried to take
and that -- that's not what was put in there, because that's not what was wanted.
De Weerd: Any other questions or comments from Council? You know, certainly it was
an oversight. I -- and I think a number of the -- the company's interested in -- in perhaps
doing it was following the discussion and -- and Council's direction and decision. Certainly
if this Council feels that it needs to go back out we can do that. You can disqualify any
responding proposals and -- and put it out again and see if -- if additional responses are
-- are made. So, I -- I understand your concern and -- and certainly there -- there are
options at this point.
Cavener: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Cavener.
Cavener: Maybe I guess along that this note, has this been the process that we are going
to repeat on an equal basis? I was in Boise this morning and I see that there is a third
operator now that's open -- or operating called Spin. Should they or any of the other
companies that want to engage, is that, then, on an annual process with the same RFP
committee following the same process moving forward in -- where do we go from here in
terms of our program?
Watts: Well, I can -- I can address this year's program is just a one year deal. So, this is
taking us through December 31st. If the City Council wishes to do this again next year,
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we would most likely issue another RFP and see if we have additional vendors interested
and do the same process. I mean --
Cavener: Okay. Madam Mayor, just maybe a comment then. I think I mentioned this in
our previous meeting. It may be advantageous for us as a city to work towards maybe
partnering with VRT in looking at a regional scooter program, so we don't have to deal
with these challenges. We can provide a more cohesive program that's region wide. I
know some of us have our own opinions on VRT, but this is transit and if we have a more
regionalized system we can I think free ourselves from some of these challenges for what
it's worth.
Milam: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: I think that's an interesting idea. I -- I don't know with the enforcement aspect
of it if they could do that. But it's certainly something that could be looked into. Yes, Mrs.
Milam.
Milam: I would just like to recommend that if we do go through this and accept this
proposal, that there is something more definite on the books that some -- an RFP should
go out in November or December of this year. This is an annual contract, so the contract
would need to begin January 1st. So, a decision would actually need to be made the end
of this year. So, I just want to make sure that that's, you know, out there and in the -- in
the plans.
Watts: Sure. That can be something that can be set up in advance and to be honest , I
would assume that Council will want to hear the feedback and how this first year goes to
decide whether or not you want to do this again for another year.
Milam: Right. We just don't want to wait until next year, that -- it's a shorter window,
so --
Watts: Sure.
Milam: -- have to have that before like November and let's see how it went through
December and into the fall.
De Weerd: I think that's a great idea and maybe have a report back to Council the
beginning of September, because you would have to put it out again and you want to talk
process, you want to bring back any data that we have been able to gain from the first
several months of use and see how that goes , so that you are prepared going into the
next calendar year.
Watts: Correct. And I would also recommend if this is something that -- that works out
and is favorable to the city, that Council would possibly suggest a multi-year agreement
if this is something that looks like it's going to be sustainable within our city, then, I think
a -- and at least an option for multi years on -- on the agreement would be feasible, so we
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are not doing this every year. We don't like to do it every single year for recurring services,
so if we can set this up on a multi-year contract that would be preferable.
Milam: And Madam Mayor? And I agree, you know, or at least a renewal option.
Watts: Yes.
Milam: Right? The only caveat would be that we did allow up to two. So, if we have one
vendor we need -- and you wanted to have a renewal with that vendor, because they have
been performing wonderfully. They can have a renewal and , then, you can still put an
RFP out for a possible second vendor and either pick one or not. If we have two vendors
who are both wonderful vendors and we don't have any problems , then, I don't see a
problem with having a renewal option, but since we did say it's up to two, we -- I think we
should at least allow for the option of two.
Watts: Yeah. I would recommend that as well.
Milam: Thanks.
De Weerd: Okay. Any other discussion? Okay. This was just an update and it will be
brought back it sounds like the last --
Watts: Yeah. In two weeks we expect to have a contract before you.
De Weerd: Okay.
Watts: Thank you.
E. Public Works: Environmental Program Plan Update
De Weerd: Thank you, Keith. Item 9-E is under our Public Works Department with our
environmental program plan update. You all received the environmental plan in -- via
your box, as well as an e-mail follow up. So, I will turn this over Dave.
Miles: Good afternoon, Council Members and Mayor. Thanks for your time. Respecting
the time we will be brief. Jason and I are going to run through the plan, the environmental
programs plan at a high level, but we did want to make sure that we have the conversation
today and get your feedback and direction, because we do find it not only an exciting
topic, but one that values input from you all, as well as the community. So, with that I will
jump right in. For some of you this may be new and we can appreciate that and, in fact,
I don't know if a prior version has been presented to Council before, but there is a prior
version from 2015 that the Public Works Department had as well. So, our plan is a
working plan, highlighting current state analysis, which focuses on ongoing
responsibilities, driven by regulatory rules, as well as actions that improve our business
needs and operations. The plan also frames long term goals and initiatives, some of
which are low hanging fruit, which we can accomplish today and we have been doing,
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some are -- some of which require more analysis, more conversation with you all and so
we are looking for some of that direction from you from a conceptual level , a high level
around those types of things that we should move forward . The long term -- excuse me.
One of the other things that we are looking for is a direction from you all as to whether or
not Meridian should have a longer term vision of environmental or sustainability initiatives
or focus rather on project by project, case by case initiatives as they come up or
something in between and we are here to affect that conversation and to have those
conversations as we move forward. So, when we talk about all the factors that we
consider in our sustainable initiatives as we move forward, we refer to in our department
is using the triple bottom line. We know it's been used a lot, but it's still very relevant to
what we do today. Research continues to find that economic development is connected
to environmental and social factors and that it's beneficial for communities to consider the
relationships between the economic growth, well being of our community, and sustaining
economies. There is a recent survey out there, over 91 percent of economic development
professionals said it's important to consider the triple bottom line in these ongoing
economic development programs and discussions. In this regard our plan is trying to
connect projects and objectives that reduce the impact of our surrounding environment
and community and save financial resources at the same time, because we think that all
of those are important in that triple bottom line. So, I referred a little bit to the history of
our program and our plan. Environmental programs plan started back in 2010 in Public
Works. That was really a way to kind of get boots on the ground and start making some
inroads and making some efforts. In 2015 we saw the first draft of our plan and it was
developed as a way to capture and plan the department activities in Public Works with
more of a defined approach. Between then and now we have had the city strategic plan.
We have also had some transitions in our department and so now we are trying to align
the environmental efforts that we conduct on a day-to-day basis, as well as the long-term
initiatives that we have going forward with the st rategic plan and the vision of the
community and the vision of you all as our leaders. A little touch on the strategic plan as
well before I turn this over to Jason . In support of the strategic plan objectives that we
have, the plan identifies both internal and external efforts. Internally we have been
evaluating things like -- for example street lights and City Hall lighting upgrades to
transition to LED. In fact, you will see in the budget conversations coming up there will
be a proposal for street light LED conversions. The plan also identifies ways to support
community efforts. For instance, a pilot program that we conducted with the Parks and
Rec Department for a water wise class was a good success. We just ran this a couple
months ago and it filled up almost immediately and had a lot of positive feedback and we
appreciate working with Parks and Rec in that regard. The energy bag program is another
type of program that the community asked for and was looking for and you all were
responsive in that and helped us get that going forward. So, based on a little bit of effort
that we have made this far, we know there is both an interest in the community and in the
city to advance some of these efforts and the opportunity and operationally not only to do
the right thing, but those things that also help us find cost savings. So, I will turn it over
to Jason. He's going to run through the programs themselves and, then, we will close it
out with conversation and feedback from you.
De Weerd: Hi, Jason. Thank you for being here.
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Korn: Hi. Thank you. As Dave said, I'm going to go through some of the more specifics
that are in the environmental program plan. So, the plan outlines key strategies and
concepts in five programs, as you can see here . Those range for more the regulatory
compliance space, such as stormwater or waterways and floodplain administration to
those that meet more community or business needs or city strategic plan needs from
education outreach and sustainable operations. I'm going to go through each of these
programs at a high level. There is a lot more detail that we can get into, as you can see
if you have read the plan, but I'm happy to answer any more specific questions at the end
or come back at a later date to talk about one program in particular if that's of interest.
So, start with stormwater, but first I would like to go through the -- the format of this slide.
As you will see, this slide, again, for the next four programs after this -- so, in the top left
we have our program objectives and, then, on the left we have two different type of
ongoing activities, those that meet the regulatory needs and those that are more ongoing
business needs. Maybe not tied to a specific law regulation . And on the right we have
community and strategic initiatives. So, areas where we want to see the program go or
actions we have done more recently that are somewhat new and different and on
stormwater -- so, there is really two types of stormwater programs that we look at . The
municipal stormwater system, the MS bore and that's the system that ACHD owns and
operates, so all the storm drains in the City of Meridian and the public roads are operated
by ACHD and they hold that permit with EPA. So, coordination with ACHD is important
for us. And the other one is construction, general permitting. It's an EPA program on any
construction sites and with that we review and approve stormwater pollution permits and
plans on all our capital projects and take care of the permitting with EPA . Ongoing
business needs include training our Public Works inspection staff, training our code
enforcement staff or project managers and complaint response. So, respond -- or
complaints from the public are typically excessive track out in the neighborhoods, dust,
certainly trash and debris from construction sites and those two are really tied to our
community as strategic initiatives. We recently brought a training and certification
program in house. Previously we would send our inspectors and project managers to a
training at a vendor, like the College of Western Idaho, to get a certification for
comprehensive stormwater inspections. So, I can now teach that in class, so I recently
taught almost 40 different people in our Public Works and code enforcement and went
through this class and improving complete response and enforcement capabilities.
Hopefully, being able to address those complaints in a more timely and efficient manner,
maybe before they get too out of hand. Things like working with our community
development, building inspection and code enforcement , all getting on the same page,
knowing what to look for, knowing how to address those issues a little quicker and -- and
looking at what type of enforcement tools that we currently have or what we might need
if we see there is a problem that we can address.
De Weerd: That's fantastic. That's really cool.
Korn: Yeah. I know those complaints kind of get tossed, you know, a wide net , so they
-- they get all the -- I only receive a small fraction of them. I know there is a lot more that
probably don't even come to me, so -- our next program, waterways and irrigation. This
addresses the network of streams, canals, drains and laterals that run through the City of
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Meridian. On regulatory activities, we review our capital projects for things like 404
permits with the Army Corps of Engineers, stream alteration permits with IWR, 401
certifications. Anytime we cross the waterway we have got to look at all of these things,
including license agreements with irrigation districts . Ongoing business needs.
Floodplain mitigation and stream restoration. And not tied to a regulation, but kids
support, water quality initiatives or -- are certainly in our floodplain program through
mitigation and reducing that floodplain. Those really opportunistic when we have the
opportunity in certain stream stretches where everyone's on board. And addressing
public concerns and complaints and in our waterways that's typically illegal dumping,
stream bank erosion, encroachments, things like that where we help work with the
irrigation districts and code enforcement to resolve those issues. And our community and
strategic initiatives. As you know we have a reclaimed water system out at our
Wastewater Resource Recovery Facility and while we plan on continuing operating that
program as it is right now, we are open to talking with stakeholders on alternative methods
of delivery. So, right now that goes out to a limited amount of customers in purple pipe.
There are options of putting that into a surface -- existing surface water canal. I know a
lot of other cities, such as Nampa, are already looking at that and we will continue to have
those conversations and encourage stakeholder engagement in hazard mitigation
program and getting the irrigation companies primarily on board in addressing their
facilities in the context of the Ada county hazard mitigation plan and for floodplain
administration -- and that's one of the more established programs that fall under this
environmental program's umbrella. This is primarily done to maintain good standing in
the NFIP, National Flood Insurance Program, which allows our residents to purchase flood
insurance on their properties and allows us to receive FEMA disaster assistance. Without
participating in this we don't get that. It's a lot of regulatory activities, serving as the
community official and official map repository for Meridian. Developing and maintaining
a flood damage prevention ordinance, which includes floodplain development permitting.
There is a broad range of development that occurs in the floodplain and it all needs to be
reviewed and permitted. Business needs include community rating system. It's a
program that Meridian participates in. It allows a reduction in flood insurance rates by
doing what may be seen as above and beyond the minimum NFIP, but it's really things
that we are already doing, such as education and outreach and a few other programs and
participating in the hazard -- Ada county hazard mitigation program, which is one of those
community rating system activities to get that discount . Our community and strategic
initiatives, evaluating that CRS rating. Doing a cost benefit analysis. What would it take
to go up a rating, allowing a higher reduction in rates compared to the cost and time that
it would take our staff to get to that level. So, we want to look at that. Is it worth it. Don't
really know. Something we think we want to look at. Update our floodplain ordinance.
You may have heard the lower Boise River maps that FEMA has been working on for the
past six, seven, eight years I think. At the time that when they are adopted, which we
have heard that there will be a letter of final determination sometime this late fall, m aybe
September, but at that time we will come back to you as we have to update our ordinance
to adopt those new maps and adopt any other changes that we see, maybe we need to
work on our ordinance. Educating staff on floodplain permit and inspections. So, that's
from our Community Development, building inspection code enforcement staff all getting
on the same page. With education and outreach, we move from our regulatory and
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compliance based program to those community needs and strategic plan goals and we
really want this program aligned to that strategic plan goal of engaging community
partnerships. So, we only have ongoing business needs and one of those is -- is in our
environmental excellence awards program, which I came here last month and we had
that. Outreach through our Public Works Week Expo. It's coming up very soon. Our
social media outreach, like every department I think has increased lately. You may have
seen some of those. Trash Talk Tuesdays or Water Wise Wednesdays and really hitting
some of these topics through social media and you may have seen the interpretive
displays that we have out at our Wastewater Resource Recovery Facility.
De Weerd: I must say that Shandy does great at Trash Talk.
Korn: Yes. I hope we can continue that program. Community and strategic initiatives.
As David mentioned, we have a community survey coming out soon, which is primarily
solid waste space, but we do still have some overarching environmental based questions
where we hope to get a community perspective. Our sustainability themed classes. One
of our tactics in our strategic plan, which we partner with the University of Idaho and the
Parks Department to bring in that class on designing a water conserving landscape , but
there is a lot of potential there and improving outreach on trash and recycling. You know,
there has been a lot of changes in that realm and I think we will continue to have a lot
more changes and we are happy to have a solid waste coordinator on board now. So,
Tom Otte, he is able to really get on fine tuning our outreach message on what needs to
be done in the trash recycling world. From that our fifth environmental program is really
three complimentary -- complimentary, but separate programs in energy efficiency,
conservation, water conservation and waste reduction and these are really developed to
meet that city strategic plan objective, develops citywide internal sustainable programs
and similar to these larger programs, I will go through these at a real high level, but they
could get a lot deeper in each of these as well. I will highlight some of the activities that
we have done and kind of ones we want to investigate. Energy and efficiency and
conservation has been a lot of interest to our sustainable operations team where we are
trying to identify some of these initiatives. They are really attractive, because
technological advances have made these a lot more feasible, along with Idaho Power
offering generous incentives to kind of make those returns a lot easier to handle. Things
we have already done. Our wastewater and water utilities have been upgrading their
motors, pumps, drives, installing variable frequency drives whenever they can. They
have been doing that work for, you know, ten years now and they -- they keep finding
things, but we are fine tuning it and part of that's done through Idaho Power cohorts.
Idaho Power brings in a consultant and have the utilities participate in a program to
identify more energy conservation measures . Our water utility was identified as one of
the most efficient in southwest Idaho, so they are very proud of that . Facility lighting
upgrades. We have already started some of those, such as the Home Court facility
recently. I know we have retrofitted some fire stations as well. That really leads us to our
initiatives, because there is a lot of opportunity there in lighting. One we are looking at is
City Hall, retrofitting all the fluorescence here to LEDs, exploring what kind of a process
that would take. Retrofitting street lights to LEDs, as David mentioned and -- and you
have heard about getting some amendments to start that program , but there is a lot of
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opportunity there that we really need to look harder at. Our wastewater group identified
an aeration, post-aeration blower at their recovery facility that can be upgraded that has
a very low return on investment in about two years, so, it's -- and, again, that low hanging
fruit that we are still identifying and evaluating bio gas for beneficial use. That's using that
digester bio gas to power something like a combined heat power engine , so we create
electricity and heat from that bio gas. Currently it's flared out into the atmosphere most
of the time. Some of it's used for heat. Water conservation. So, as you can see here in
the objective, the objective is to preserve, protect and extend the useful life for the city's
water supply. So, we think we are currently producing water at sustainable rates. We
don't think we are depleting the aquifer. That's what the research has told us. But by
conserving water we could really make that resource last a lot longer and have that
available for future growth, future industries, and perhaps delay some capital
expenditures in the future. So, we have a water conservation plan, but it was last updated
in 2013. So, that's an obvious area to look at and it's an initiative as updating that plan,
which includes a lot of our outreach and education materials. So, just giving that a good
look, updating it as needed, updating our objectives, what we want to do with water
conservation. And as we already talked about , our -- our Class A wastewater reuse
program is really water conservation as well, because we are using that instead of
producing new fresh water by pumping it from the ground and, as I said, we are continuing
that the way it is now, but always engaged for those new opportunities that may make
sense for us and also looking at the rules and regulations around that program, you know,
if those improve that might make other uses more attractive. And our third sustainable
operations program waste reduction. We currently have recycling in all of our facilities,
including blue bins in all of our offices here at City Hall and we have moved to a more
electronic documents based program. I know our Community Development has really
gone pretty far in that in going with Project Docs and in submitting most of their
applications and plans and plans reviews all being done electronically now, despite, you
know, giving this plan out to all of you and killing the trees for doing that , we hope this is
going to be electronic as well, because it's the environmental plan and it probably should
be. Our initiatives. Again, similar to the public education and outreach to employees on
where the recycling program is at, how we can better manage it and part of that includes
green purchasing, not producing that waste in the first place, evaluating that and
evaluating biosolids disposal. Currently we take a lot of that to the landfill and there are
potential other uses for it. So, we are looking at that. And so timeline, next steps. This
is -- this slide is an example of the sheet that's in the back of the environmental plan. It's
a little reduced a bit on this page, but it has our general roadmap of when we want some
of these items completed. If you look in the plan it has who is going to do them, whether
it's meets a city strategic plan objective as well. A way to track where we want to go with
that. With that, I will hand it back over to Dave to wrap things up.
Miles: Thank you. Council, so there is not much more. Hopefully you have had a chance
to read our plan and we know you have got it in front of you. Really it lays out the ongoing
and the regulatory work that we are doing today and have had to do and we feel like it is
a good framework to establish not only some of those projec t by project things that we
can look at today through our analysis, efforts, and either execute or come to you and ask
to execute, but also establish this -- this conversation as sort of what's the long term,
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what's the goal, are we meeting the goals that you all see that the community sees. We
hope to get some good feedback through things like our community survey that we are
going to do this quarter and we also like feedback from you. So, with that maybe I will
just open it up for discussion and leave it there.
De Weerd: Thank you, Dave and Jason. A lot of thought went into this. This is a very
comprehensive document and I appreciated sitting down with you and discussing some
of it prior to this, but it's exciting to see it all in one form and very concise and I think
Council Member Milam responded earlier today, just someone paying attention to
efficiency of our precious resources and looking at long term sustainability, so that our
future generations can enjoy the same community that we are enjoying today I think is
very important.
Miles: Absolutely. Thank you.
De Weerd: Council, do you have questions? Feedback? Certainly if you don't have it
tonight I would invite you to comment to staff. Mr. Borton?
Borton: It's not -- maybe not a question, but as you read through it it's just overwhelming
to see all of the objectives and resources, the schedule and action items, anything that
you could possibly think of it seems like you have covered. So, going through the report
it's so comprehensive and it's -- it's much appreciated for the diligence that's done in not
only preparing it and tracking it and measuring it , our successes, both internal and
external with our community, so -- but when I first went through it I couldn't really find
anything where -- other than that's an awesome idea. That's a great program. Great to
see you following through with that. So, I will continue to read, but the only preliminary
response for me is it's just outstanding. You have covered so many -- so many ways to
steward those resources efficiently, proactively, that makes us quite proud to have you do
it. Good job.
Miles: Mayor and Councilman Borton, thank you. We appreciate that feedback. I think
that's really a testament to the efforts that Jason's made, but the direction that we get
from our leadership, as well as you all on a day-to-day basis to really focus on all aspects
as one, you know, whether it's the financial of the community or the environment , really
consider those all holistically as one and -- and having a conversation and evaluation
around it. So appreciate it.
Cavener: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Cavener.
Cavener: Guys, who is -- who is into the audience and who are you hoping reads this?
Because I -- I agree with Council Member Borton, I think it's very comprehensive. I'm just
curious who -- who you are hoping picks it up and reads it, who we are wanting to make
sure reads it. Help me understand that piece.
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Miles: Madam Mayor and Councilman Cavener, really I think in conversations one of the
intent is to take and discern this information down into more a user friendly version online.
The document as a whole is absolutely for anybody -- public consumption, you all, our
leadership team, as well as our staff to help shape direction and maybe to a little bit of
Mr. Borton's comment, there is a lot of information and so it's hard for us to segment it --
to segment it out and not have a holistic approach, but at the same time once you put the
holistic approach together it becomes a ton of information. So, I think truly going forward
looking for a way to simplify it for the community's consumption.
Cavener: Madam Mayor, a couple follow ups. How much of the actions that are
prescribed in this plan are regulatory driven? Is it the feds that are driving us to do some
of this? Is some of this date imposed? Is it self imposed?
Korn: I would say in the -- the first three programs a lot of it is regulatory and, you know,
to really divide it into two things for the whole environmental program, those that are --
programs that are designed to meet those regulatory and compliance needs and those
which are more the city's strategic plan and how we plan on meeting those objectives and
tactics that are in that plan. So, I would say the majority of the first three are and not the
other two programs.
Cavener: Madam Mayor, a couple other points and -- if I may. Just for feedback, some
things that maybe I would like to see is the cost benefits of the programs that we are
choosing to do and, Dave, you hit I think the nail on the head right from the get go about
the economic development implications. I think that's a piece that we need to also
highlight, because all those are going to come at a cost and being able to showcase the
cost benefits or the economic recovery that can come from that. The other piece that I
just -- I noticed was missing was really any piece about air quality and I know Council
Member Little Roberts is on our air quality board, that's something that we continue to
hear more and more as an area of concern. I know we don't have a lot of jurisdictional
oversight of that, but if we are -- if we are talking about our environment, we are talking
about things we are doing internally in regards to paper, I would hope that we are also
maybe leading that conversation about air quality in the valley as well.
Miles: Yeah. Madam Mayor, Councilman Cavener, that's a great point and one that we
can continue to have and that's sort of related to the strategic objective about community
stakeholdership is working with the DEQs of the world and working with the other entities
across the valley to help affect that. There is -- there is lots of considerations that go into
that and we will be sure to add that in.
Milam: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mrs. Milam.
Milam: So, were you looking to -- at the beginning of this you said you wanted to have a
conversation and you are looking for direction a little bit to -- for a long-term plan or keep
them separate. Am I right? What are we looking for now?
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Miles: Yeah. Madam Mayor and Council Woman Milam, I think in our mind from an
environmental perspective you certainly have the regulatory and ongoing day-to-day
things that we are doing and accomplishing and within those we can perform cost benefit
analysis to evaluate projects on a project -by-project basis. I think one of the questions
we have that's out there is whether or not there is a desire by the Council to have
additional longer term, higher level visioning efforts to establish what the community and
where the community wants to go, whether that be driving some stake in the ground
around air quality or whether that be driving a stake in the ground around energy
consumption, things of that nature. So, that's the discussion and the information that we
are -- we are happy to take any feedback.
Milam: Well, I mean I think it's very important to have those long-term goals and visions.
Obviously, it's a living document that's going to change with the environment around us
and depending on how things are changing in technology and everything else. I like
having -- how you have it all separate, but as one. I think every -- all five are very
important. Obviously, the ones that are regulated are -- we don't really have an option
on. I think they are all very important, though, and I think that, you know, including the
community outreach and -- and education, what we do around here, having a long-term
goal, though, and -- and vision -- still anything that has a cost to it has to go through the
budget process, so it's kind of like, yes, but no.
Miles: Yeah. Madam Mayor, Council Woman Milam, I appreciate that perspective and
that's what -- that's what we deal with every day is -- are those. What's exciting about
this program is the innovation that's out there. You know, Jason mentioned combined
heat power and the conversations that we have had just initially at a high level to say what
does something like that at the treatment plant look like, not only for us but for Idaho
Power and the operators out of the treatment plant. It's exciting, but it's got a lot of
challenges to it operationally, it's got a lot of cost associated with it, and, then, what does
the rest of the stakeholder view look like, so I appreciate that and we consider that moving
forward.
Milam: Madam Mayor, one more thing. And so what -- one of the things you talked about
was like street lights or retrofitting the City Hall with LED lights and I think those are the
kind of things that especially the cost analysis is going to be really important and -- and if
you can get estimates on the cost savings over time with electricity, you know, how -- how
long is -- how long does it take to pay for itself and, then, with the street lights -- I mean if
you're doing it as needed I mean it makes total sense. But if we are replacing good bulbs
that we just replaced with LED, then, we are wasting money. See what I'm saying? So,
it's really about the planning and, then, how it's done, but I'm very supportive of all of it.
Amazing job you guys. Thank you.
De Weerd: You're talking to the department that does an ROI cost benefit analysis on
everything.
Milam: I know.
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De Weerd: You know. And this -- this document is an initial. It is part of the strategic
plan, but it also will evolve, especially as Jason mentioned, they go out with the
community survey. Priority based budgeting does start to look at what is mandatory, if its
regulatory or if it's business necessary and, then, if it's a community priority. Once you
establish those community priorities that information will be back here in front of Council
to -- to get feedback on if it's something that the Council wants the city to move in that
direction and what associated costs could be and -- and if it has some nexus with a
mandatory or regulatory type of a -- an aspect. I appreciate the forward thinking and
looking at finding efficiencies and -- and eliminating redundancies and so I think over time
this document will reflect a lot of those things that they are doing to be more
environmentally conscientious, but also to be more efficiency -- efficient in cost and
delivery of service. So, I -- I was excited about the report and appreciated all the work,
the time, and it just is a great reflection of the innovative thinkers that we have in Public
Works and excited to see how you move forward.
Miles: Thank you. All right. Thank you. Appreciate the feedback.
F. Public Works: Design Standards Update (Action Item)
De Weerd: Okay. Also under Public Works we have Item 9-F, which is the design
standards update.
Stewart: Good evening, Madam Mayor, Members of the Council. So, in 2016 we
implemented the first ever City of Meridian design standards document and just to kind
of give you a little bit of background -- not going to take very long, but that was a really
substantial effort to come up with a document that provided basically an instruction
manual to the consulting engineers and designers who do business with the City of
Meridian. You may have a question as to how does this differ from our specifications.
Well, specifications are really the instructions to a contractor when he's out in the field
that tells him exactly how to construct a manhole. The design standards are more of the
instructions to those preparing plans telling them how often do you place a manho le and
where do you want it and so it's -- it provides a little bit different information. So, we
created the design standards 2016, implemented them, and they have been serving us
ever since. But it's about three years old and it was the first ever docu ment and as time
has gone on there have been things that have come up that we have realized we need to
update that, we need to change this, we need to tweak it here and there. So, we
embarked about a year ago in an effort to take a look at -- we developed subcommittees
that took a look at every one of the chapters within the design standards and provided
recommendations on changes that needed to be made for the next generation of the
design standards manual. Those subcommittee leaders came back and we ass embled
sort of a draft -- excuse me -- a draft document and we took that draft document and we
put it out on the internet and with a hot link, asking for feedback. We also sent out e-
mails to consultants that do business with -- or not consultants for us, but, essentially,
design consultants that do business with the develop -- developer world that submit plans
to the City of Meridian. Contractors and developers and asked for their feedback. We
specifically went to the BCA and said, well, we have got this new draft document, would
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you like us to come and do a presentation to the BCA and the BCA said, no, but we would
like to have a smaller committee or smaller group come and meet with you. So, we
organized a focus group with three members of the BCA, who are also developers in our
community, and they came and provided feedback. We received that feedback. Honestly,
that's the only feedback we received. We didn't get any actually from the outreach that
we did to the -- to the more broader group. But we did get some feedback, specifically
on six different items from that group. We took a look at that feedback and told them that
we would get back to them. We revised the document, made edits to the document. I
can go through each one of those individually, but the bottom line is we were able to -- I
think in almost every case move in a direction which was the way they wanted us to go
without compromising what we felt was a critical need that we had. So, recently
responded back to that group, said we now have a new draft document, it's out on the
web, you can go look at it, make comment and we are going to take it to City Council and
seek adoption, so that we can start utilizing it as the new document. Haven't received
any comments from any of them. My feedback -- I have talked to one of them personally
since then. My feedback was that they are genuinely happy and so I think maybe that's
why you don't see anybody here tonight and so I'm here tonight just basically asking for
your approval to go ahead and implement the document and we don't do this with the
specifications, but we do it with the design standards, because they are a little bit different
and seeking your okay to get it adopted and put it into place. With that I will stand for any
questions.
De Weerd: Thank you, Warren. Council, any questions?
Cavener: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Cavener.
Cavener: Warren, where does that design standards live? I know that it wasn't
necessarily included in our packet. Is that something that is easily accessible online for
development community to access? Is it something that when they come in were
provided to them? Help me understand that particular piece.
Stewart: The design standards is on the internet. It's under the Development Services
connection. I think we actually have a link to it from engineering as well. But there is a
section in the Development Services, which is sort of where the repository for all
information that's helpful for designers and people that ar e trying to do business with
Community Development and if you go in there it's -- it's listed in there. Right now there
is actually supposed to be two documents. There is the old version, which has been
around for three years, and there is a new draft one, which is labeled as draft until we
adopt it and, then, we will take the other one down.
Cavener: Madam Mayor, follow up. Warren, is there any immediate rush for us to
approve this today? My perspective.
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Stewart: I don't know that there is an immediate rush. We are just -- you know, the
process has taken us a year. We have gone through fairly significant outreach and we
are just simply looking to get it implemented. We would like to implement it sooner rather
than later to cover the vast -- the vast majority of the construction season, but there is no
-- you know, it's not an emergency or anything like.
Cavener: Madam Mayor. The only reason why I asked -- and maybe this is something
that we could put on our Consent Agenda for next week. I would like the chance just to
review that for Council's benefit. Warren provided me a copy of the letter that I think he
sent to some of the stakeholders that I really appreciate you sharing. In it it speaks to a
couple of rewarding of language. I just would like to have an opportunity to review that
before I --
Stewart: Sure.
Cavener: -- I give it a thumbs up. I don't have any concerns, but just having the
opportunity to review that before we approve it and so -- I don't know if there is other
questions or comments, but I'm happy to make a motion if there is not.
Nary: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Nary.
Nary: Madam Mayor, Council Member Cavener, it might be helpful, too, for future if we
attached a resolution to it. Many times people come back and look and want to know
when did they do that, when did that change, and so if we have a resolution we have a
tracking mechanism, that will be a little easier for the future for other people if that
becomes a question.
Cavener: Great.
Nary: So, we could do that, too, for next week.
De Weerd: Okay. We will bring a resolution back next week.
Cavener: Great. Thanks, Warren. Appreciate your work on this.
Stewart: Yeah. You're very welcome.
G. Public Works: Budget Amendment for FY 2019 in the Amount of
$57,750 for Wastewater Sewer Line and Manhole Repair [Action
Item)
De Weerd: Okay. Also under Public Works we have Dale Bolthouse.
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Bolthouse: Also. Madam Mayor, Members of Council, you can see we are digging deep
into the bench strength of Public Works tonight. Before -- before we jump into the
amendment request, I just -- I just wanted to take an opportunity to make a couple of
comments. This next budget amendment comes in a -- in a base budget line item and
we budget those annually based on our historical needs. We don't add additional money
in there in anticipation or feel like we have to build a -- you know, a hedge fund or anything
like that and so we rely upon this amendment tool -- evidently quite often to help cover
those unforeseen things that come up. As a matter of example, for this specific line item
we last year did not spend 50,000 dollars in that line item and it was returned to the
undesignated ending fund balance for -- for the Enterprise Fund. This year, unfortunately,
we -- we need a little bit more and that's what I'm here to talk to you about. So, you have
before you a budget amendment request for 57,750 dollars. That coincidentally is almost
the same amount of money that we took out of this line item to deal with the Bitter Creek
lagoon issue that we were faced with last fall. So, I think we feel like we really nailed this
budget very close to our needs until that came up and took 60 grand out and relocated it
to a -- to another account on us. So, we have detected a couple of things in our sewer
system that have to have attention right away. We are progressing on those projects with
the preliminary efforts. We need to get them done. The request is for 57,000 dollars for
the three items that are identified here and we are requesting your approval to secure
that funding, so that we can get those items repaired in the sewer system and manhole
system. So, with that I would stand for any questions.
De Weerd: When you said we nailed it I heard Undercover ROSS in that statement or
something.
Stewart: You know, some people say I do sound like him, but --
De Weerd: Yeah.
Stewart: -- it's probably coincidence.
De Weerd: It's weird. Yeah. Any questions by Council?
Little Roberts: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mrs. Little Roberts.
Little Roberts: Madam Mayor, I move that we approve the budget amendment for the
amount of 57,754 for wastewater sewer line and manhole repair.
Milam: Second.
De Weerd: I have a motion and a second to approve the request under Item 9-G for the
budget amendment of 57,750. Any discussion? Mr. Clerk, will you call roll.
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Roll call: Borton, yea; Milam, yea; Cavener, yea; Palmer, yea; Little Roberts, yea; Bernt,
absent.
De Weerd: All ayes. Motion carried.
MOTION CARRIED: FIVE AYES. ONE ABSENT.
Item 10: Ordinances [Action Items]
A. Ordinance No. 19-1825: An Ordinance (H-2018-0097 – Smith
Rezone) For The Re-Zone Of A Parcel Of Land Being A Portion
Of The Block 3 Of F.A. Nourse’s Third Addition, As Filed For
Record In The Office Of The Ada County Recorder, Boise,
Idaho In Book 6 Of Plats At Page 289 Lying In The NW ¼ Of
Section 7, Township 3 North, Range 1 East, Boise Meridian,
City Of Meridian, Ada County Idaho; Establishing And
Determining The Land Use Zoning Classification From C-C
(Community Business) Zoning District To O-T (Old Town)
Zoning District In The Meridian City Code; Providing That
Copies Of This Ordinance Shall Be Filed With The Ada County
Assessor, The Ada County Recorder, And The Idaho State Tax
Commission, As Required By Law; And Providing For A
Summary Of The Ordinance; And Providing For A Waiver Of
The Reading Rules; And Providing An Effective Date.
Bolthouse: Thank you very much.
De Weerd: Thank you, Dale. Item 10-A is Ordinance 19-1825. Mr. Clerk, will you, please,
read this ordinance by title.
Johnson: Thank you, Madam Mayor. Ordinance No. 19-1825, an Ordinance, H-2018-
0097, Smith Rezone, for the re-zone of a parcel of land being a portion of Block 3 of F.A.
Nourse’s Third Addition, as filed for record in the office of the Ada County Recorder, Boise,
Idaho, in Book 6 of Plats at page 289, lying in the NW ¼ of Section 7, Township 3 North,
Range 1 East, Boise meridian, City of Meridian, Ada county Idaho; establishing and
determining he land use zoning classification from C-C, Community Business Zoning
District, to O-T, Old Town Zoning District, in the Meridian City Code; providing that copies
of this ordinance shall be filed with the Ada County Assessor, the Ada County Recorder,
and the Idaho State Tax Commission, as required by law; and providing for a summary of
the ordinance; and providing for a waiver of the reading rules; and providing an effective
date.
De Weerd: Thank you, Mr. Clerk. Council, is there -- are there any questions? If not, I
would entertain a motion.
Milam: Madam Mayor?
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De Weerd: Mrs. Milam.
Milam: I move that we approve Ordinance No. 19-1825 with suspension of rules.
Little Roberts: Second.
De Weerd: I have a motion and a second. Any discussion? Mr. Clerk, will you call roll.
Roll call: Borton, yea; Milam, yea; Cavener, yea; Palmer, yea; Little Roberts, yea; Bernt,
absent.
De Weerd: All ayes.
MOTION CARRIED: FIVE AYES. ONE ABSENT.
Item 11 : Future Meeting Topics
De Weerd: Anything under Item 11 ?
Item 12: Executive Session per Idaho State Code 74-206 (1)(f) To communicate
with legal counsel for the public agency to discuss the legal
ramifications of and legal options for pending litigation, or
controversies not yet being litigated but imminently likely to be
litigated, and (j)To consider labor contract matters authorized under
Section 74-206A (1)(a) and (b), Idaho Code
De Weerd: If not I would entertain a motion Under Item 12 for Executive Session.
Borton: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Borton.
Borton: I move we go into Executive Session pursuant to Idaho Code 74-206(1)(f),(j), (b)
-- (1)(a) -- yeah. (1)(a), (b), (f) and (j).
Cavener: And (b)?
Borton: (b).
Cavener: I didn't hear (b). Okay. Second.
Borton: (a), (j), (f).
De Weerd: (f), (j), (a) and (b). Okay. Mr. Clerk, will you call roll.
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Roll call: Borton, yea; Milam, yea; Cavener, yea; Palmer, yea; Little Roberts, yea; Bernt,
absent.
De Weerd: All ayes.
MOTION CARRIED: FIVE AYES. ONE ABSENT.
EXECUTIVE SESSION: (5:45 p.m. to 6:08 p.m.)
Palmer: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Yes.
Palmer: I move we come out of Executive Session.
Milam: Second.
De Weerd: I have a motion and a second to come out of Executive Session. All those in
favor say aye. All ayes.
MOTION CARRIED: FIVE AYES. ONE ABSENT.
Palmer: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Palmer.
Palmer: I move we adjourn.
Milam: Second.
De Weerd: I have a motion and a second to adjourn. All those in favor say aye. All ayes.
MOTION CARRIED: FIVE AYES. ONE ABSENT.
MEETING ADJOURNED AT 6:08 P.M.
(AUDIO REOORDING ON FILE OF THESE PROCEEDINGS)
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